The Grey God

The Watcher was quiet. As Darian suspected, the small creature was unwilling to reveal its true intentions.

"You can't do what we can," the Watcher said finally. "You can't stop them without us."

"You can't find them without me. At least I know where they are."

"And when they strike?"

"I won't give them that chance. I'll find their gateway and hunt them down one by one."

"You will find yourself short on time, ikir."

"Maybe. But since I am the Gatekeeper, that's my concern, not yours," Darian said firmly.

"You don't want us to leave you to your fate with them! You can't stop what comes!"

"Yeah, I do want you to leave. All of you. Go back to the immortal world. Attack the Others there. I'll clean house here."

The Watcher winked out of existence. Darian cursed at it under his breath, knowing it hadn't done what he said. He looked at the portal. Even if he couldn't close it, there had to be a way to monitor it, or he'd never be able to manage the gateways.

His body seized suddenly, and he dropped to his knees, doubled over. Pain flew threw him, scrambling his thoughts. For a moment, he didn't know who or where he was. Darkness swallowed him before he could figure it out.

*****

Tucson, Arizona

Near the White God's former headquarters

The guardsman materialized out of the dark, moonlight glinting off the metallic purple symbol on his back. He approached what had been one of many former safe houses belonging to the White God near the base of the Tucson Mountains. The building had been burnt to the ground, and the guardsman began the process of sifting through the ashes. His masters only needed one small token of the body that had been burned here. Something as small as a piece of hair or a tooth-anything that the soul of the dead immortal might still cling to.

The desert around him was quiet and the sky overhead clear. It stretched for miles, littered with stars brighter than any he'd ever seen. He found himself stretching his head back to take in the view. The stars didn't shine quite so bright in the immortal world, and the sky didn't seem as endless.

If he didn't find what he sought, there might not be an immortal world anymore. The guardsman lowered his gaze to the ashes as he began digging in earnest. Duty replaced his fascination with the mortal world.

His masters wouldn't be pleased if he came back with nothing. This time, it wasn't them he feared. Rumors spread through the guardsmen of a second Schism, one that would finish what the first started. The first tore the two worlds apart; the second would destroy one of them. It wouldn't be his world, not if he found the seemingly innocuous token his masters sent him to find.