The Heart of Mor

Chapter One

It started like any other day, overcast and pouring, the cobblestone dark from the rain. He was walking his usual route towards the precinct, the hood of his cloak pulled up to keep the rain out of his eyes. The walk from the first ring to the third is a long one, so he must start at five in the morning to make it to work at seven. He would normally use public transport but all public teleportation stations in all five rings were down for maintenance the entire month, though he can see that the out-of-order signs on some of the transport pads have been blown off. It wasn’t too long before he made it to the entrance of the second ring, flashing his badge at the checkpoint.

“Hey, have ya heard? There’s been an uptick in robberies and break-ins.” It was one of the checkpoint guards, a young guy, probably fresh from training. He grunts in irritation at the news, of course this would be happening the week of The Grand Museum’s commemorative exhibit celebrating our first king. “Well, let’s hope nothing goes wrong while the Grand Exhibit is here in the old capital.” The kid continued as if he never made a sound, “What, with the Heart of Mor being the star of the show, but it is the most guarded relic in the kingdom right now. Though they might see that as a challenge, you can never know with those types. I say-" He pressed the tips of his fingers over the kid’s mouth, unable to keep the smile from forming.

“You have a lot to say, I’m surprised you have time to take a breath. Save some words for the next person, why don’t you.” He had a playful tilt to his head as he pulled back. The kid was flushed in the face and stuttered out, “Y-yes, sir.” The kid pulled his hood down further, trying to hide his blushing face. The other man chuckled, shaking his head as he continued his way to work, “See you later, kid.”

In about an hour, he made it to the checkpoint in the third ring and happened to see his ex-partner and best friend from his precinct. She was transferred to a different department, but they still maintained a friendly relationship. She was always the smartest of the two. “Selah! It’s a little early for you, isn’t it? I’ve never seen you up before ten!”

“Klemot, up at the ass crack of dawn, as always. Yeah, a bunch of us were selected for guard duty on a rotation and this morning is my turn.” Guard duty? He silently tilted his head and furrowed his brow. She yawned so hard that he could hear her jaw pop before she deigned to answer his unvoiced question, “So, I guess you haven’t been informed, but with the exhibition and the string of heists, the museum curator and the royal liaison decided to beef up security with local law enforcement. This was announced while you were out of commission a couple of weeks ago. I would’ve hoped they’d kept you informed.”

“Why not skip this city or cancel the exhibition out right?” He was confused as to why they were making this riskier than it had to be. She let out an aggrieved sigh and roughly rubbed her hand down her face before giving him an annoyed side eye. Her voice took on a nasally and obnoxious tone, obviously mocking, “Because Torteris is the first city of Hatties, and you can’t have an exhibit about the first king without starting in the original capital.” He couldn’t keep the incredulity off his face. “I know, it’s stupid.” she said as she shrugged her shoulders in agitation.

“Well, that was my little piece of stupid news. What’s been going on with you? How’s your recovery going?” He lifted his hand and tilted it back and forth. He smirked when he noticed the small tick on her left eyebrow that usually means she’s annoyed. She reached out and smacked hard him on the shoulder. “Use your words!” He sighed, still smirking slightly, and started answering her original questions, “Nothing much has been going on other than catching up on my reading. I’ve recovered enough for filing work, but I still have a limp that has me relegated to desk duties until a complete recovery.”

“Well, that’s better than-”, They were halfway towards the precinct when an explosion shook the ground. The two of them shared a look before they took off in the direction of the explosion. It wasn’t long before they were standing in front of a building in an empty lot that was on fire which was surrounded by officers, first-responders and rescue crew. They made their way to the officer nearest to them and Selah was quick to gain their attention, “What happened? Any casualties?”

“Not sure, yet. The necromancers on site are currently sweeping the building and the surrounding area but there are only a few of them here, so it might take a few minutes.” They looked over to a small group of people that seemed to be an equal mix of all the departments that are on-site. They were all in meditative positions, probably communing with their contracted spirits as they searched through the burning building. Klemot walked over to join them, “I’ll be adding my spirits to the search to speed things along.” Before the others could respond, he closed his eyes and called to his spirits.

With a quick, massive burst of power, twelve spirits were summoned into existence. Everything fell into silence as he looked each spirit in the eye. “Search for any survivors. Quickly.” And with that all twelve spirits disappeared into the building. The silence continued for a few more seconds before it was broken by a hoarse whisper, “Holy shit!” Then the flood gates opened, and a sea of voices filled the space the silence left behind.

“I didn’t know a necromancer could contract that many spirits!” A voice noted, sounding quite shocked. Another voice responded with, “That’s Detective Munakim, only the strongest necromancer on record outside of the royal family.” A different voice piped in with a, “I heard he’s actually the demigod son of Mor.” An ugly snort was heard, “Yeah, right! I heard he’s an illegitimate son of the king." The gossiping continued from there.

He paid no attention to the murmurs and tried to focus on the information he was receiving from his spirits, information which caught him by surprise, it was empty. Quickly, he searched for Selah and caught sight of her heading his way, and after making sure to meet her eyes, he created a surface-level telepathic link with her. 'The building is empty, not one person to be found.’ That had brought her up short, her face scrunched up in confusion. ‘If no one is in there, who or what started the fire? Quick, see if you can find the source of the explosion.’

He closed his eyes and refocused on his spirits. It only took him a few more minutes to find the used sigils carved into the stone floor of the basement. He also found the second set of sigils due to go off in less than one minute with the words ‘The Black Hand Shall Rule.’ His eyes snapped open, and he screamed, “EVERYONE GET BACK! THERE’S ANOTHER ONE!” People were moving before he even finished but not fast enough.

The second explosion shook the ground and sent everyone flying. Klemot was lying on the ground, having been tossed like a ragdoll a few feet from where he was, ears ringing and disoriented. He slowly stumbled to his feet and looked around, trying to gage the damage. People were injured with different levels of severity and the building was in ruins. Medics, who were farthest from the explosion, were swarming in and treating the injured, focusing on the worst first.

Selah was a few meters away from him, bruised but well enough that she was arguing with the medic. As he made his way over, he could begin to hear what she was saying. “I’m fine! Now stop touching me before I put you in this gurney myself!” He couldn’t help his huff of laughter as he watched the poor woman stomp away. “Couldn’t bare any more of the pretty medic’s tender touch?” he teased from beside her.

She snorts in irritation and, maybe, just a little in embarrassment. “Don’t joke. You know that Vera is my one and only. Besides, you and I both know that I’m just fine, my ability to take a hit hasn’t weakened in the least.” She stood up abruptly and gave me a once over, “What about you? Are you okay? How’s the limp?” He shrugged nonchalantly, “No more than to be expected from being thrown a few feet. What’s really bothering me is the Black Hand is involved in this.” She straightened up at that, “The Black Hand? Are you sure?”

“They wrote as much above the explosive sigils. ‘The Black Hand Shall Rule.’ Pompous assholes.” He growled and crossed his arms, glaring at the ruined building. Selah didn’t respond, too deep in thought. Just as he was about to ask her what they were, they were interrupted by a young officer. “Backup is arriving. I was told to let know.”, he gave a quick salute before he went off to inform the other ranked officers. Selah frowned, “More back up? With this many officers, who’s watching the Heart? Oh God! THE HEART!”

“What?”, he sometimes found it difficult to keep up with her. She rounded on him and exclaimed, “The Heart of Mor! That must be what they’re after. It’s said to give untold power to those who wield it!” She started to rush towards the nearest teleporter, and he had to be quick to pull her back. “Wait! Those are still out of order! Who knows where it will send you if you try to use it now.” He quickly located a police cab to borrow and alerted the nearby officers of their suspicions.

The exhibit was pretty far, in the First ring, in fact. Though, with Selah behind the wheel they were half way there in little time. If he hadn’t been looking, we probably would have missed them. It was a slight out of place movement that caught his eye. He looked up to see people running across rooftops being chased by others in officer’s uniform.

“STOP!!!” He jumped out before the cab even stopped moving and he hit the ground running, nearly stumbling before he caught himself. He ran alongside the buildings before he used a quick burst of power to propel himself to the rooftop in front of the suspects. He grinned when one of them, a woman with blonde hair, crashed into him. He was quick to spin her around and cuff her before she could react, in doing so, she dropped the package she was holding. They both looked down, confused, at the glowing, black, stone wrapped in cloth between their feet.

She was quicker to react this time, she kicked the stone to her accomplice which he then caught. “Michael is waiting.” She said as they shared a quick grin with one another before he took off to their original destination, which seemed to be the central teleportation hub. Leaving her to his fellow officers he followed the man, barely keeping him in his line of site and wished he hadn’t had to wait another thirty minutes to reuse his summons. In the meantime, he sent a familiar to Selah to inform her of his suspicions of the suspect’s destination and to the fact that he believes that said suspect has the Heart of Mor.

They both landed at the edge of the hub, gasping for breath. Just as he was about to confront the man another voice spoke up behind him. “Well, I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon, Detective.” He gasped when felt a sharp pain in the left side of his lower back. He looked down to see the tip of a blade sticking out of his abdomen and weakly touched the edge of the wound before it was roughly pulled out.

He fell to his knees, vision graying at the edges, as a man walk in front his line of sight and crouched down to meet his eyes. Klemot felt his eyes widen when he realized he recognized that face. “You’re the kid from the checkpoint.” The man, boy really, smiled, “I’m so pleased that you remember me. I certainly remembered you; I’ve never met someone who intrigued me like you do. Though, I would like to know what kept me in your recollection. I did try hard to be forgettable.”

Klemot couldn’t stop his snort if he wanted to, “You talk too much. It didn’t seem like you were trying very hard.” The boy’s smile dimmed at that remark but it quickly brightened up again. “Nevertheless, you remembered me, so you must feel the same.” He got a chill on the back of his neck that he couldn’t tell if it was from the blood loss or the look on the man’s face. He flinched when he reached out and caressed his cheek.

“Sir? We have company on the way, maybe we should get started before they get here?” The other man hesitantly interrupted, reminding them that they were not alone. When Michael pulled back, Klemot let out a quiet breath and relaxed his tensed muscles before he quickly tensed again, his wound flaring in pain. He smiled brightly and clapped his hands eagerly, “Right you are, Anders. Let begin.” With a bounce in his step, he walked to the center of the transportation platform and held out his hand in which the Heart was placed.

“Oh, Wordren, God of Wrath and War, brother to Viva, Goddess of Life and Pathways, and Mor, God of Death and Passage, I call to you. Please grant me power over the Heart of Death.” Immense energy flooded the platform, unbearably hot and wretchedly cold. “I offer a sacrifice in return.” At the mention of sacrifice, Anders gained an expression of confusion.

Almost too fast to be seen, Michael swiftly slashed his throat with the blade still in his hand. Anders fell to his knees clutching at his throat, trying in vain to stop the bleeding, choking wetly. Within moments, he died and all Klemot could do was watch in shock and horror. The sudden increase in power shook him to his sense and he staggered to his feet. The others were taking too long and he was afraid of what would happen should Michael succeed, so he did something he knew was stupid.

While Michael was distracted with his ritual, Klemot started his own prayer as he made his way closer, “Oh, Mor, my patron god, I beseech you. I am in dire need of your aid in guarding the land and your Heart. Please assist me in keeping it out of the hands of the undeserving.” With the last line of his prayer came surge of warmth and energy that gave him the strength to clear the rest of the distance to grab the Heart from Michael’s hands. The moment he touched the stone the energy multiplied a thousand-fold and it changed from a burning cold to an all encompassing warmth. “NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GIVE THAT BACK!” Michael charged forward and retained a grip on the stone but Klemot also refused to let go.

The two differing energies clashed with one another creating wild winds and sparks of lightning. “ Klemot!”, he turned at the sound of his name and saw Selah outside the platform with many other officers, unable to get any closer. He smiled helplessly at her, “Hey, Lala! I’m going to do something stupid! Rescue me later?!”, gesturing to the teleportation circle. Her eyes widened in realization before she narrowed her eyes and grit her teeth in determination, “Always.” With that he begun channeling the energy into the portal through the Heart and just as he expected it had begun to splinter and crack as the strongest portal in history began to form.

“STOP! WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING, STOP!” Michael panicked screaming could barely be heard over the billowing winds and the crackle of energy. Klemot couldn’t help but to grin wildly, baring his teeth threateningly, “I refuse.” Finally, in a brilliant flash of light the portal formed with the shattering of the heart and everything within ten feet of it was sucked in, Klemot and Michael included.

---

Klemot woke up gasping for breath and feeling like a truly magnificent headache was on its way. The first thing he took stock of was the fact that he was no longer in pain, his injury was healed. Second, was that he was unbearably hot and grimy. Looking around he saw that he was surrounded on all sides by nothing, just hot sun as far as he can see. The dirt was a golden yellow and reminded of the sand on the beaches of Eliseim, just dryer and hotter to the touch.

It was like if the cold deserts of Juntonhime turning hot instead. There was nothing and no one around him. Engulfed in the desert’s parched silence, I was nothing but another grain of sand in the wind.