Truth Unfolding

Chapter One

The urn sat on its base, fragile and delicate after a millennium of wind and rain wearing it down. Like so many things in his crowded office its time of usefulness had passed, leaving it no more than a tired relic waiting only for its inevitable end.

He glared at the bitter reflection of himself across the room, thinking of the days, long since gone, where there was a promise of something wonderful with each new sunrise, a time where there were still things he had not done, and all the time in the world to do them.

Now with each sunrise, his ambition waned. The lists of tasks grew with every passing minute. However, his heart could not stop questioning why. What was the reason behind all his actions? Was there any useful purpose left for him to serve?

"You seem quite pensive today, Louie." Her voice demanded his attention. "What's got your noodle cooking now?"

She sat impatiently on the other side of his desk. Her fingers dancing around to distract her mind while waiting for his reply. How she had gotten there so suddenly was just one more sign of his incredibly advanced years.

"Nothing of great consequence to you, child." He replied, knowing fully that she would never be satisfied with his answer.

Her insatiable thirst to know it all demanded that no question go unanswered. Each and every dark corner need be filled with a blinding and unyielding light. It was what made her his greatest pupil, and his greatest annoyance.

"My dear Asha," he began before she could have a chance to probe deeper with her curiosity, "I gather there is a more important reason behind this visit of yours."

Her eyes alone consented to this fact. They were freshly filled with determination and an immediate sense of getting down to business. Asha lifted her legs to softly rest them on the far corner of his desk. This casual move was her way of breaking the coming news gently.

"The b*****d is back." She stated simply. "He's back, and he has plans."

"I expect you think that you have somehow just explained everything," Louie sighed as he leaned over his desk, "But I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific."

"It's Jonas," she stood to meet his face screaming, "You daffy bi-millennium a*****e!"

Louie chuckled under his breath, thinking of all the colorful new insults fledglings were throwing around nowadays. How he envied the fire still burning in her young soul, and worried about the day it would begin to fade just like his.

"Tell me, dear," Louie began with a heavy sigh, "What have you dreamt about that king of the damned now?"

Asha growled as she fell back into her seat, and Louie instantly regretted his choice of words. The child was vengeful and hot-headed. There was no telling how she would take any questioning of her character. Especially on a topic she found to be of great importance.

"You would do well, old man, to not take this matter lightly!" She continued after taking a moment to contemplate her answer.

Louie saw that this was something that needed to be argued delicately. Luckily she knew that as well and kept her anger in check. She could not risk compromising her position too early in the game.

"On Christmas Eve I was out walking." Asha began. "There is no need to tell you how or why I was out walking the streets, just that I was."

Louie nodded, not accepting her dare to force the matter further. The child had a bigger story to tell, one that was more important than questioning her over things she had long ago deemed to be none of his business.

"During my walk," she continued once she was sure he had no comment to make, "I came upon a graveyard that had been deserted. Most of the occupants there are centuries old."

"I would imagine so." Louie added as Asha paused for a breath.

"Yet as I wandered through," Asha started again, ignoring his comment, "I could tell something was wrong. The further I wandered into it, the more I could catch his scent."

"Whose scent, what are you babbling about, child?"

"Jonas, it was his scent all over the place, Louie!" Asha insisted.

What makes you so sure of that?" Louie retorted.

"I know it was him Louie!" Asha insisted again. "I'm telling you he's back and we need to move now! Heaven knows what he has planned."

Louie sat silent behind his desk, wondering why he was in shock. He had always known she would find out eventually. It had just been his hope that she would only learn of this under his own terms.

"I don't appreciate your silence, sir." Asha said, drawing him from his thoughts.

"I know he's still alive." Louie solemnly admitted as he sat back in his chair.

"You knew?" She asked while her face grew pale.

"Yes." He replied. "I've...We've known for a long while."

"You knew!" Asha screamed, before his desk was cleared by the vicious swipe of her arm. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

He looked down to the new mess on his floor. Papers, notes, and a few fragments of the artifacts he was studying lay defeated on the cold tiles. Looking up again he found his student balled up in the tiny office chair, vainly trying to contain her anger and disappointment in him.

"There was no need to tell you." He spoke plainly once she finally looked him in the eye. "Jonas hasn't taken a human victim since the loss of his Queen, which destroyed the better part of his coven. He and a select few remain, feeding only on the wildlife near them."

"You lied to me." She cried as she pointed forcefully to her mentor. "You told me he was a cloud of ash in the wind."

"Only to protect you, child." He tried to assure her. "I know there is a history between you both, though you refuse to tell me. Perhaps he even made you. I could not risk that unknown history tainting the good you have done."

"Protect me?" She whispered.

Before he could answer, his prized desk flew in front of his eyes. The only shield separating them now gone, she forced him out of his chair and slammed his small frame against the nearest wall. Her hands firmly against his throat plotting their vengeance.

"In all my years," she began while taking a tighter grip, "Many a man has tried to hurt me. Some have even succeeded. But to stand there lying to my face about the one thing that can bring me peace, all in the supposed name of protecting me? Well I guess it takes centuries of practice to be as heartless as that!"

"You ungrateful, childish fool." Louie said.

In seconds her anger was reciprocated as he threw her across to the far side of the room, the shards of ancient pottery and rock tearing into her flesh. She curled up in agony, every move sending violent tremors up her spine.

"Simpleton," he addressed her, holding her face that he could look into her frightened eyes, "Do you honestly think you are any match for me?"

"You, child," he continued, "Are nothing but a toddler to me. A mere infant bumbling around my knee's."

Her lips fell back into their natural scowl as she flew up from the floor. Her fists flying in every direction, barely taking notice of where her punches were landing.

By the time she realized they were hitting soft flesh, Louie lay on the floor with his arms shielding his face. Patches of blood covered his arms, neck, and face. Her mentor was defeated, and worst of all he knew it too.

"Perhaps you're not such a babe after all." He said once Asha's fury had died out.

"Oh Louie," she responded in shock, "I'm so sorry!"

He waved her concern away with his hand as he accepted the rag she offered to mop up his face. Then motioned for her to join him on the floor. Asha complied in seconds, eager to make amends for her anger.

"It's of little consequence, child." He began again. "This day was long in the making. It was only a matter of when."

Louie stood then looking to the one corner of the office that hadn't been touched by their brawl, and the urn that still sat unawares in its fitted base. He walked over, a stern gaze fixed on his destination.

"One thousand and seven hundred years ago," Louie turned back to his audience, "This was new, fresh from its maker's hands. It had one true and defined purpose, not unlike yourself."

"What are you getting at old man?" She replied.

"One thousand and seven hundred years ago," he continued, "I bought this from a vendor when it was barely a week old. With it I carried water to my house and filled it with the fruit of my land. When it could hold these things no more, I put it on a shelf. Now its only purpose is to not fall apart."

In demonstration, Louie bent over to tip the base ever so slightly. The innocent urn tumbled out, shattering into nothing but fragments and dust at her feet.

"Oh dear," Louie began, "I guess it's failed there hasn't it?"

"Sir," she replied, "You are insane!"

"Perhaps I am." He retorted. "Perhaps I am insane and foolish enough to try and protect you from wasting your soul on an evil errand such as this. Perhaps it is a waste for me to try and instruct you to live a worthy life before you are little more than the relic that urn was!"

"For almost three millennia I have walked this Earth!" Louie continued as he sat down on the floor again with his student. "Watching the world die and be reborn hundreds upon thousands of times. Seeing those close to me vanish as if they were never there. Names that are forgotten to history along with my own."

"I am nearly like you child," Louie spoke plainly as he looked deep into Asha's eyes, "And share a similar fate to your own. We are both forever tied to a world that no longer exists, severed from the natural cycle of the rest. But my curse is much different."

"My flesh is warm, where yours holds the cold of death. I bleed, as you have seen from your tantrum. Yet I am not human." He admitted to her. "For every century that passes, only a year of that will ever show on my face. It isn't a fate I have chosen for myself like you have chosen your own; it is only a curse the gods have forced me to bear."

"Louie," she began cautiously after he finished, "There is more that I have to say."

He looked at her with his eyebrows cocked. Wondering what else she could possibly have to say of any importance. With a heavy sigh he lifted himself from the floor and held out his hand to help her up as well.

"What is it, child?" he questioned once they were both seated. "What have you to say?"

Asha took a moment before answering. "It was one of the graves, sir, where his scent was heaviest. The grave itself had recently been dug, though it belonged to someone several centuries old." Bowing his head, Louie sighed heavily.

"You know then why I need you?" She asked, the determination returning to her eyes. "I know Jonas, and he would never commit any act without some plan that follows. I cannot imagine any innocence in play here."

He knew indeed what she wanted. His connection, his knowledge of the others like them all over the world. She was urging him to call them to action, and unleash them against Jonas' coven to rid the world of his evil. If only it were that easy. He had no say over them, not like she and so many others thought.

Louie was only a messenger, the common ground they stood on. But for something as tedious as a possible war against their own, he could not unite them for a cause like that, and he told her so. She bowed her head in disappointment, and he felt shamed that he could not live up to her view of him.

"There is something though, if you truly think this is a crucial issue." She nodded and he continued. "There are five among us that hold more sway over those who would be willing to help. Convince them, and you have convinced the lot."

Without hesitation he put his desk back upright and scrimmaged through to find a single sheet of paper. Handing it to her he read off the names of those that were listed. A shape shifter, a body snatcher, a seeker, a huntsman, and an empath.

"The best one to start with is Cedric Galen, the shape shifter." Louie suggested. "He'll most likely be the easiest of the five to find, and he might know where the others are hiding."

"Thank you Louie." She said with an honest smile before hugging him around the waist. "I'll never forget this!"

He smiled too, watching her brush away the remnants of their brawl to get to his door. When it closed again he couldn't help but pray to a god that was long dead to the world. For she was off to fight a grand battle, one that might in all reality be her last.

Bless her fiery heart, even if she were to win. Once Jonas and his coven were slain, another would most likely rise to take his place. So it has been for all time. He could only pray that her heart's flame would not burn out, just as his had so long ago.

"Why so solemn?" The brown-haired man inquired from the shadows.

Louie froze at the strange voice, and damned his advanced years for robbing him of his intuition. Taking a deep breath he turned to face the man, knowing only at first glance who he was.

"I don't care much for talk. Why don't we just go ahead and bring this all to fruition." Louie said. "What does your master Jonas want with me?"

"Oh," the man continued, "He wants you dead of course."

"Of course." Louie repeated.

"But I'm starting to think you have something worthy of another few moments." The brown-haired man said thoughtfully. "Tell me about the lady you were just entertaining."

Louie sat in his leather chair with a condescending grin. "I see there are some pieces missing to the puzzle of your prey. Let's just see if we can't finish the story for you."

Author's Note

Any thoughts on improvements or things you enjoyed about this chapter.