Authors note: after I finish a later chapter I will go back and rework all the chapters into a more cohesive whole. Some major changes need to be made in chapter 6 for example, names need to be corrected. A few areas need expansion. But until I have a little more story to tell.
Chapter 7
I slept an uneasy sleep. And in my sleep, once again visions came to me. I was walking down the tunnels, without flashlight or aid my feet seemed to find their own way. As I turned one of the sharp turns my left hand reached out to the wall and engravings on that wall. As I touched it a glow started where-ever I touched. I continued to walk, I dragged two fingers across the wall on my left side. The glow had an orange hue as it grew to fill the passage. I felt a rhythm exude from the wall as I walked, a drum beat and a deep tone filled the space as I walked into the altar chamber. As I entered the chamber the light traveled behind me, following me like a dog looking for food. It crept out of the tunnel, growing til it filled the chamber with glowing light. I walked up to a closed door and placed two palms over two symbols that seemed to be calling to me. A warmth spread from the door into my palms, through my arms and with it spread a feeling like when your foot falls asleep. This whole time my actions seemed to just, make sense, I didn't decide to do anything. The door opened up before me, and on I walked, once again making contact with the wall as I entered this new tunnel. A softer light followed me now, I could still see, but only barely. The beat grew stronger as I walked on, the floor tilting slightly forward as I moved further in. The passage split, I took a path without thinking or even having time to note where the other path branched off to. The beat formed part of a song, wordless it penetrated my mind. I closed my eyes and hummed it as my feat moved of their own accord. On and on my feat seemed compelled by the beat as if charmed by a snake charmer. I know I passed through several more splits in the path because as the passage grew larger my fingers lost contact with the wall, though my feat did not slow. My eyes slowly opened as my feet brought me to a stop at the end of a tunnel, and I saw a hole in the floor, with a ladder sticking out of it. Once again my hands and feet knew what to do, and I began descending the ladder. Darkness enveloped me as I got farther down the ladder, passed where the light shone from the hole above. I lost count of the steps, I must have been traveling down hundreds of feet. All I knew for a long time was darkness and the stone wall in front of me.
As I reached the bottom of the steps, I found myself in a wide tall space, at one end to my right a single door was illuminated by a single symbol, exactly the same as the one I had seen on the door in the cellar, that seemed so long ago now. As I moved closer to it however I realized the scale it was built on. The door was over double my height, and wide enough to move an elephant through with room to spare. The symbol dominated it, and was the only marking on it's otherwise smooth surface. As I got within several feet of it, and moved my hands to place my palms against the door I was startled by a loud booming sound, like the footsteps of a giant. As I got within several feet of the door I realized that it was different from the other doors in another way, in that it was stone and not metal. It then revealed a further difference, as a crack formed down the middle, and the door became two which swung inward. As I tried to peer through the blackness the door had created in opening, I saw lamps light themselves, old style gas lanterns attached to Pillars in the interior space. These pillars were 4 feet wide, flaring at the base and extending upwards into a fog and supposedly eventually the ceiling. I began slowly moving into the hall revealed by the lamplight. A cloud of smoke appeared on either side of me, barely a foot away from touching me, and out of this cloud two robed figures appeared. Before I could even react they bound my hands in front of me with coarse rope. It hurt, and I realized I wasn't dreaming. One end of the rope they held, though at no point did I see their hands. A voice, deep and soothing came from one of the figures. "Follow us and all will be explained." I looked more closely at the figures as I had been distracted earlier by their theatrical entrance. They both stood much taller than me, at least seven feet tall, though they must have been slender because no part of their bodies seemed to touch the outside of their robes, and all openings in the robes seemed empty, almost like some sort of specter or spirit had inhabited the fabric. However they appeared quite real.
I passed on, moving deeper in and following my mysterious hosts. As we moved on a fog seemed to make the dark grip close. The dark felt like a blanket that provided no warmth, and caused a sort of uneasy feeling of being trapped, of claustraphobia. I lost so much of my ability to see that I was force to hold onto the cloak of the person in front of me. There was no telling what gender said person was. While tall and manish in voice, there was something distinctly feminine and graceful in their movements. I sensed some sort of movement out in the fog, several feet away. I heard most of it, but occasionally I would see something resembling a bit of skin, or perhaps a slicked down fur coat. I felt something wet and furry slip past my leg, and that perhaps is what put the idea of a slick furry thing moving in the dark. I tried to imagine it was a rat, but my senses would not participate in my deception, and reminded me it felt wrong for a rat.
I was led to the center of a great chamber which in shape reminded me very much of the chamber we had discovered up above, except in greater size, and more like an imitation of that chamber. The writing was absent but the glowing carvings were not. They glowed blue, carved into straight lines along the floor, illustrating a chair obviously intended for me to occupy. I sat cautiously, frightened of what these strange persons would do to me, but frightened more of displeasing them. I tried not to show any fear and instead attempted to be bold.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
The glowing carvings provided a bluish light showing many persons or creatures in hoods in the room surrounding me, behind individual podiums. The podiums rose out of the rock of the floor as if carved there when they carved the chamber, I made assumptions on that fact, but did not follow that line of questioning.
A voice came from my right and all turned towards it, the voice while deep was also commanding, speaking loud and clear like a sunday preacher. The tone was rather sermon like as well, resembling a fire and brimstone southern preacher, though I had already seen enough to curl even their hair. Perhaps enough to put the fear of God as it's said, but to be more accurate a fear of the unknown.
The voice rose, though it could have been any of three speakers, as they all sat in that area, and made no movements to indicate which had said the words: "While we will adress those issues in our own time, you will show all due respect. You are in our home now and so those questions would be more appropriate coming from our lips and not yours. However I will tell you we need not answer your questions, we know more of you than you of us. We may even know more than you about why you are here than you do yourself. But to answer your question first: We are the Eldest, a group with similar goals and with the means to attain them. We are immortals, some of the insects that crawl on the surface above have chosen to call us Gods, but there is nothing absurdly supernatural in our long life. Merely avoiding risks and believing does a fair part. But a larger part is linked to your second question. We are about several things, some we can speak of, some we can't. These caves link into a greater system that covers most of the continent, and connects to much more, though how much even we have not determined. That is one of our tasks, Another is tending to the creatures that live in these caverns, a relic from a race beyond time, but of that we cannot tell you more. Finally we continue to secure our immortality by dwelling this close to the surface and, shall we call it harvesting? Yes you may cringe but there is a great science to this, man has suspected it but not had the proper ways of achieving it, but by consuming the weak we become wiser and live for longer."
He paused here and let the indigestion that was clear on my face pass. The unease however, did not pass. Now many things were more clear. These people needed to be exposed to the authorities and wiped out.
"I do not need supernatural powers to tell that you plan to try exposing us, I would not advise trying it. There are secrets we guard more dangerous than just the loss of a single life. If you decided not to join us, yes I said join us, you will be detained until we can find a suitable way of erasing your memory, or of disposing of you. You may find that shocking that we don't eat you on sight but we are not savages, the people above are, Many of your forbearers sit among our ranks, though few have risen to the council that is their choice. Now you know what we can tell you, until you join and swear eternal loyalty we cannot reveal much more. If you have questions you may ask now. I repeat you may ask, but we may decline to answer."
Though I had many things I wanted to ask the most burning question rose to the top: "Where is my father? and the two men I brought on my first visit to the lodge above?"
"Your father? Yes I can see why you would think we would know that, though we do know much we are not omnipotent, like I said at the outset people merely mistake us for Gods. All I can tell you about him is that his time to either join us or perish had come, he would have found a way to pass to you a notebook he carries containing some and some more than I have told you here. As that is not all mine to tell I can reveal no further."
"And my friends?"
"I'm afraid the protection that extends to you does not extend to guests you bring, and that applies to all the members of your feeble human team at our gates. We spared them simply because we wanted you to come to us without seeing too much bloodshed, and to protect you of course. The blood flowing through your body is prime for selective breeding and for our selection process. We find it impossible to create more of our number through procreation, so we must recruit to expand our reach."
I responded with unfamiliar boldness: "No, not I, my team will find you eventually, and I don't think you'd hurt your investment."
"We are saddened by your choice but hopefully you will change your mind before you force our hand. For now you will be imprisoned, we have fed recently and you are right at least that you are valuable. We would much prefer everyone be friends."
At that they led me to a stairwell and led me up some steps into a dark prison cell. Almost immediately after my captor left me I realized I was not alone. Another man sat at the other end of the cell. I saw him as he lit a cigar, and by the light of the cigar embers. He was dressed in a finely tailored white suit with pinstripes. He appeared very much the gentleman, but something about those eyes, it unsettled me.
"Hello, so glad you get to share the hospitality of our hosts."
He offered a hand to shake, I was too startled to reject the familiar gesture and shook it. It was the type of handshake to chill your bones, firm with those strong weathered hands. Seemed like hands of a blacksmith not a gentleman. He smiled a warm smile but something was just off. So very polite. They say that first impressions are the longest lasting, I doubt I could forget his.
"I am called the Concierge, and you have no idea what you're getting yourself into"
*music sting*
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That last bit was for my friend who knows who the concierge is, but the rest of you will get to know him soon enough. I'm terribly sorry it took me so long, I had myself written into kind of a corner there, but finally sprung that trap. Hopefully this will loosen up the story again and get it moving.
