Chapter 29: Guardian

I was appointed the task of concealing the greatest treasure of darkness, so to speak. Forgive me my grammar, I am not accustomed to writing, but I will do my best. I feel it is time for me to tell my tale. I'm more of a "do'er", I do things, most of the time, spying, killing, delivering messages. But a while ago, my life took a drastic turn.

I have always been told that I was something special, by my uncle, Lord Darklighter himself. He chose me to carry out the greatest task ever appointed to one of his servants. I'm not even supposed to write about it, in case someone should get their hands on this diary, but I simply have to share my knowledge with somebody before the silence drives me mad. Yes, the silence. I'm a very silent type of guy, but that doesn't mean I can't think.

The silence around this task I strictly bind to me and no other than Matthew Darklighter, may he be ever noble in his cause. He took up the task raising me as a confident servant truly devoted to his beliefs. I could never do anything else than serve him.

The task I was given was so important that he did not even tell me where we were going until we got to our destination. This is my account of what happened this evening:

The great, dark hall stretched far and wide with tall pillars reaching to the vaulted ceiling. Everything was made of some kind of stone, black like granite or marble, but it was neither of them. There was an eerie gloom in there, pale and dimmed without a true source. It made all the surfaces shine, blank and polished. If you looked carefully, there were several kinds of runes engraved in the tiles and on the walls.

The pillars stood in a circle around a low stone pedestal with a black shrine upon it. It was as if the shrine was the source of obliteration of all light around it. You were able to see it, but then again you couldn't tell the difference from the shrine and the darkness which seemed like dancing ribbons, waving around the iron.

Out of the darkness we stepped. My uncle at first and I followed, as if we appeared out of thin air. I looked at him, insecure and uncertain of the next move. Was this a test of some kind? The last test of loyalty?

He passed me and I followed as he walked with long, calm steps towards the pedestal where he stopped. He threw a glance around before he looked down upon the shrine and stroked the lid with a light hand; he smiled and his icy blue eyes gleamed in the darkness.

I turned to look at him after studying the shrine closely. "What is this, my lord?" I asked. He turned and met my glance with a thin smile curving his lips still.

"I have a very special task for you, Shade. A task that no one else will be able to carry out," he answered. I bowed my head to show my gratitude with his trust.

"Whatever you say, I shall perform without hesitation, my lord," I answered. He gestured for me to step forward and I came up beside him as he put a hand on the lid of the shrine. The dark ribbons danced up into the air, like grains of sand being blown up from the ground by a harsh breeze, only to settle again around my uncle's hand.

"This shrine contains a treasure so precious to me that I, now that I fear the hide-out here has been discovered, cannot let it stay where I thought it would be safe," he said slowly to explain the necessity of the matter to me. He turned to me with an eloquent gaze upon my face. "That is why I'm going to need your help."

I winked a few times to moisten my eyes and looked down at the shrine. "Me, my lord?" I asked slightly uncomprehending and frowned. I felt both awe for this appointment, but also anger with the thought of how carelessly the coordinates of my uncle's greatest treasure had been delivered to the enemy by witless traitors. "How shall I manage to complete a quest, which even you cannot complete yourself?"

"I will show you, my dear angel of death," Matthew put an arm around my shoulders and drew forth a small, seemingly unimportant key, unlocked the shrine and opened it. A cloud of black smoke rose from it, but we did not retreat to clear our vision. When the worst had gone, a rock in the size of a fist was visible at the bottom of the shrine. The one side was polished in sharp angles while the other was like a rough stone. It was completely black except from a few white cracks here and there. The bottom of the shrine also looked like a smooth surface, but if you looked closely there was a thick, oily liquid covering it. Some of it had started crawling up the sides to get out and infect the surroundings.

Matthew picked up the stone. His face shortly showed a painful grimace when he lifted it from the shrine. The black liquid dripped from it, endlessly slowly, and his fingers were smeared by it. He handed the stone to me slowly.

"Eat it," he said silently. I looked down at the stone and cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes, my lord, but... what is it?" I asked.

"My heart," he replied quietly. I nodded and held out my hand to receive the black stone. I felt the reaction straight away when I grabbed it. It made my own blood speed up and my veins pumped painfully under my skin. I even felt a slight change on my face, but I couldn't tell what it was. I felt more animalistic, more like a beast. Perhaps it was a good thing I changed into my beast shape. My mouth was able to open wider and I managed to swallow the stone entirely. It burned my insides at first; I gasped and had to reach for the pedestal to keep my balance while the sensation of ice and fire flowed through my nerve system. I saw images, I saw places I'd never dreamt of would exist, heard words, felt pain and pleasure unlike anything I'd ever come to know again. My feet were numb and it was like falling through the air knowing that there was no bottom to smash against, neither was there a point where I had begun falling.

He steadied me and grabbed me by the elbow to shake me out of the unpleasantness. I shook my head and looked disoriented at him.

"Come, your task has just begun. I'm proud of you, my boy," he said and half supported, half carried me to the portal through which we travelled back to his office.

Yes, I was appointed the task of hiding my uncle's heart. Grotesque, it may seem, but I fully understood the importance of this move and I swore later on, that this would be my primary objective until I had to pass on the task and die in service. I was my uncle's perfect disguise and no one would ever know of this. I'm proud to call myself his nephew.

Shade.