The Collector's Tale - Part II of III

By Dracos Dragon.

The midkern winds were colder this year; the Ministry of Locales blamed it upon yet more interworld travel. Measures were being made to halt the number of unofficial visitors to the prime centres, but so far there had been no change to the weather. Qu-han did not mind; he had an office job and it was nice and warm.

For nearly forty days he had been working on the cross-referencing of known prophecies to liches. It was as close a job to the Order as someone outside of the Order could ever expect to get; no direct contact with the Kols but memos sent from Loks to his manager, who then sent them on to him. It also provided Qu-han with a modicum more of power than most others where allowed. It was not the magical freedom of a Collector; that range of power would be dangerous in a population of sixteen billion people if they all shared it. The Collectors were a special case.

Qu-han's inbox was nearly empty of prophecy case notes. He had been assigned pre-collection prophecies to archive and research; the Ministry of Collections was an old Order but little work had been done in regard to its formation and the state of affairs prior to it. Some leading academics were curious how successful prophecies had been prior to the Ministry while others felt that the duty of prophecy keeping was detrimental to the Order's real purpose. Qu-han's training had taught him something of what the Order did, but the why of it was reserved to Kols; a position that had been taken from him for indiscretions. Qu-han had little resentment for what had happened at first and had been glad of the job; now his close yet far proximity to his former masters irked him.

Of the three prophecies left in the inbox two were indistincts; prophecies that were broken or only the merest possibility. They tended to be blank or indecipherable, and it was departmental policy to spread them out evenly between all employees. There was little you could actually do with them; you simply had to wait for some event that might bring the prophecy into line with Actuality or wait for the prophecy to fade away. Qu-han picked up the last distinct and browsed through it. A prophecy about the land of P'landra-summa, where Qu-han had taken his first lich, under instruction from Kol-jok-taragath. The events looked like they might have already transpired, but Qu-han made a list of Summa and a list of P'landra liches appear before him, checking to see whether the prophecy had be taken care of by the Order in earlier days. He then checked the histories out, seeing whether natural forces had intervened.

The quake hit the office as Qu-han read. His first reaction was to freeze all the items around him in place, so that nothing fell off the work-surface before crouching under the desk. With his mind he scanned the crisscross of transmissions, hoping that the quake was not an incursion. The scattered mindvoices were confused. One voice cried out that his house was disappearing before his eyes before his mind was abruptly lost. New voices joined in the screaming before the shaking stopped.

"What was that?" he shouted from under his desk.

The office came alive with confused sound until one voice started calling out.

"I don't believe it. Prophecy quake. It was a prophecy quake. One of my indistincts has come into focus."

Qu-han stood and unfroze his desk. It had shifted slightly during the movement and the inbox fell to the floor. Nothing spilt out of it. Qu-han frowned and then began to smile. This meant he could go home early.

The Golarth Apartment Complex in the Outer Birades District was as nice a place as an ex-Collector could afford. The stigmata of those who involved themselves with the affairs of Class Three and below societies had, over the last generations, turned to an almost fanatical hatred. Rooms closer to the Inner City where for the 'pure'. The Golarth could not afford to keep liches of its own and Qu-han had not bothered to hire one as a servant; it was too costly and too big a reminder. This meant that in theory he had to tidy up after himself.

Qu-han's room, 3tu7, held mainly crates in the varying stage of unpacking. A bed, unmade, took up one corner and the variable space where the kitchen, laundry or bathroom could come into existence was the only place Qu-han tried to keep clean and clear. For the moment it was a lounge, and Qu-han was simply sitting there, looking at the crates malevolently for the third time that day. Packing was a chore and one he wished to be free of.

"Unauthorised intrusion occurring," a voice chimed.

Qu-han stood and summoned a few protections. He scanned the room both visually and mentally, trying to see where the intruder was coming from. Nothing as of yet. The security might be enough.

"Kol-qu-han..." a voice started.

Qu-han spun round and faced the wisp standing behind him. It glowed softly, about to speak again. Qu-han raised his hand.

"Before I even begin to ask why you've broken into my apartment and why you've broken in, don't even think about using your baby-talk that you think impresses Class Twos, okay?"

The wisp turned red, taken aback, and then returned to yellow. "As you wish, Kol. Do you wish me to take on another form as well?" The wisp sounded sarcastic.

"No, your natural form is well and good. Why are you here?" Qu-han made the lounge disappear.

"You have not been answering our messages. It was felt, by the council, that direct contact may be the only way to speak with you."

"Messages?" Qu-han asked. "What messages?"

"We have been leaving messages with your Order for the last ten days. It grows close to the time that you shall be needed on Balfas for the set-up of the Strangers Prophecy. There are also some events on Tideron that may need your attention." The wisp floated around the room in clear agitation. "We need to start acting, and now."

Qu-han stared at the wisp. "I am no longer of the Order."

The wisp stopped moving and became almost transparent. "But the prophecies clearly state..."

"I left the Order due to my mishandling of the Sosarian collection." Qu-han pulled a set of robes out from one of the crates. "This is all of the Order that I have, now."

"Something is wrong," the wisp said. Then it was gone.

So it called you a Kol, then?

Yes. It thought I was still of the Order.

Unusual; wisps are such hoarders of knowledge. I would not have thought they would allow such a fact to escape them.

Yes... It mentioned Balfas; the Amsereth Lich's home.

You think that the break you caused has caused Balfas to grow in prominence?

Hmm? Actually that wasn't the idea I was having at all. You think that my mistake has changed things so much?

As I don't know what 'much' is I can't say. Still, it is possible Balfas' prophecy is greater in scope than it used to be, although why I cannot say. Class Two worlds have never played a major part in the important distincts. This bears investigation, Qu-han. Much investigation.

Aye. Very, much aye.

Qu-han found the office very quiet when he walked out of the main portal. Faces turned and followed him as he crossed the room to his desk and watched in anticipation as he took his assigned material from his inbox. They watched him open the tome that was his assigned distinct. They watched him read, and then reread the opening paragraph.

"Is this a joke?" he asked when he looked up.

They shook their heads. He read on.

Kol-mer-han's visage looked a lot younger than its real life counterpart. Qu-han smiled as the old man spoke.

"...due to the new prominence of the Balfasian Prophecy of the Strangers and the associated threat of revelation that looks likely to come from it we find ourselves having to act far sooner than necessary. The prophecy is unusually specific. Because you took the corpse of Amsereth from Sosaria his rivals were unable to collect his body and make excuses for what he had done. This would have, had it happened, made the mage Destrius of Tideron suspicious and resulted in the Strangers coming to Balfas and finding Amsereth's body in the hands of the priesthood, who would have explained the actual events. The Stranger's accompanying the mage would have dealt with the rivals and this low grade prophecy would have been fulfilled. Your action changed that; Destrius will seek out Amsereth's origin and, through this, the Strangers' will finish, inadvertently, what Amsereth started. This, in turn, will return Balfas to some semblance of magical normancy and in the process alert the Outsiders due to one traversing the area at the time. This will come to pass and we cannot stop it now. You, however, will collect the body of Dracos; this is described. This prophecy is not all that important; the Outsiders could be placated as we have done before, but the associated prophecy, the Prophecy of Return, that we must prevent. You happen to be key of this particular act..."