The Rebel Faction

Naosha sadly could only shake her head when Lavality arrived, inquiring about the K’Satizitus. She suggested she talk to Rissonik, as he would be more likely to have any additional information on the spirit. Rissonik, once Lavality arrived at the grounds, thought long and hard on the subject for a couple moments before saying anything.

“Much of the old records regarding the spirit have been lost.” He explained, gestering for her to follow him. “Both due to time and more recent…events. We no longer even have the skull of the beast, which had been in our Clan since the day the founder slew it, for it was stolen during our absence from the grounds. Thus there is little more we can tell you that you don’t already know, but we do have a couple of things that may help you understand what the thing is.”

The first thing he showed her was the halberd that was recently found. “This was the weapon that killed the K’Satizitus.” He said, holding it out to her. “Mind you, the blade and leather grip are not original, as it’s been recently restored. As you can probably tell, it’s size means it had been custom made for the welder, for it is shorter then the standard halberd. This likely means the welder was nearly or as short as my own son.”

“What are these engravings?” She asked.

“This one…” He pointed to the long one on the shaft. “Says ‘The beginning and end of all things.’ The other, is a name, the name of the welder we believe. Tassu.”

“Isn’t your son’s name…”

“Yes…Trazu. We find more similarities between them the more we look it seems. We don’t know if it means anything for good or ill yet I’m afraid.”

Next he took her outside, heading toward the arena. “I am going to be breaking a rule here.” He said as he started punching a complicated code on the key pad. “Normally only those selected to train to become K’Satikur warriors are allowed in here, but for the sake of my son, I do this with the hope it may save him.” He paused in his code punching and looked at her sternly. “But certain precautions must be met first. First, your bodyguard must remain outside. Second, I must blindfold you until we reach the room I’ll be taking you too. Third: whatever else you happen to see you must keep to yourself, for revealing anything you see inside to others carries the penalty of death for both you and the one you revealed it too: no exceptions.”

“Can’t you just bring it out here?”

“I would…but the item in question is not only big, but due to the effects of time is very fragile and delicate. We can not move it for fear of it crumbling into dust.”

She nodded. “Very well, I don’t like being blindfolded, but if that’s you’re custom, then I’ll respect it” she said and submitted to being blindfolded. There where many secrets even she had that she would never tell, and most likely, she never would due to the fleet’s own penalty which was the exact same.

Rissonik carefully tied the blindfold around her head, careful not to make it too tight. Then he finished keying in the code and the door opened. Taking her hand he carefully guided her in.

Due to the fact that no one had been in here for some time the air was a little stale, but there was just a hint of the scent of blood and decay in the air. Even if he hadn’t blind folded her she probably would have had a hard time seeing anything, as the lights were purposely kept dim, giving the place a creepy, haunting feel that made most that entered feel a shudder down their spines. Even Rissonik still got that shudder; sometimes he could still hear the screams of those undergoing the specialized training that went on in here: it wasn’t a pleasant process.

He took her pass various rooms, most of which had various ‘training’ devices within, but there were also recovery rooms and an emergency room in this building: the object of this place was to toughen, not kill, the trainees. Finally he reached what was known as ‘The Pit’, where more conventional training means took place. It was the only room that had a window, a skylight actually, and when he removed the blindfold Lavality could see the various weapons hung on the walls and the series of poles implanted into the floor along one side. Rissonik directed her curious gaze upward, toward a tapestry that hung there.

It was a bit faded, but still clearly seen was a rough rendition of what must have been the K’Satizitus’ last moments. The beast was huge compared to the hero, Tassu, who was driving his weapon deep into the beast’s chest. The beast’s jaws were agape, not in pain, but in defiance, it’s deadly claws raised to slash at it’s opponent. It wasn’t clear if the coloration of the K’Satizitus was due to the fading, poor lighting or not, but it appeared to be grey in color, it’s red eyes full of hatred.

“Besides the skull and the weapon I had shown you earlier.” Rissonik said. “This is the only other thing that has survived the times. I do not know how much if a help it is to you though. The skull probably would have been a better then to show you, but alas we do not know where it is and chances are we may never find it again.”