The Withered Land, The Empire Falls: ABYSSIUM

ABYSSIUM, Part Eleven

There were eleven of them standing silently amid the tall grass and brambly reeds. Tattered burlap cloaks of burgundy hue inscribed with blue-black runic sigils rustling in the mid-morning's desultory breeze,unveiling to reveal the articulated body tactical body-armor beneath. Not a uniform, not the regimented trappings of allegiance or of office, but an exoskeletal power-suit comprised of scavenged parts.  With pistols, swords, and war-axes. They hadn't been standing there before.

Shachtferadi'im.

"Careful," the Blind Watchman admonished the swordswoman standing at his side, "Where you can see one, twice as many more are hiding nearby, masked by The Shimmer..."

Shimmer? Syngemma shook her head and gave Taran a quizzical look.

Frowning, the Watchman said, "I swear, your former masters should be ashamed of the gaping holes in your education... Some indigenous ethnic groups who are the original settlers of a given geophysical area, in contrast to other extra-territorial groups that migrated to settle, occupy or colonize that same region, possess genetically evolved bio-talents allowing them, for short periods of time, to access mathematical hyperphysical spatial expanses, other Planes of Being, through which they can move. 'The Shimmer' is the name given a localized alter-dimensional plane outside our visible Reality to which the Shachtferadi'im briefly and intermittently have access."

"Other Planes of Being... Outside?"

"Yes. They find it to be a tremendous advantage when they gather for their hunts or engage in warfare," Taran said, his manner impassive.

"Marvelous," Syngemma said, her whispered response rife with fatalism.

"Not really," Taran replied, not acknowledging the sarcasm implicit in Syngemma's response. "The Shimmer has created a dampening effect on the practical evolution of their society. Whereas our expectations, as outsiders, are for them to have developed into a somewhat coarse and unsophisticated nomadic culture with its people being harsh and brutishly pragmatic, the truth is their exposure to higher dimensions has resulted in them developing into an abstractionist social fellowship that is more transcendental and more metaphysically inclined. For the most part, the Shachtferadi'im eschew what would normally be a business-like, solution-oriented and results-driven indigenous primitivism for a more mystical collectivist mindset. Essentially, given a choice between drinking water from a pond and observing the motion of water in a pond, they'll probably choose studying the water's hydrodynamic properties -- and somehow derive from that the concept of God."

"What is it with you? Is there some particular reason you go out of your way to make my head ache?" Syngemma quipped. "If they decide to try and kill us, will any of what you told me help me to stay alive?"

Taran sighed. "Your warrior's skills are more than sufficient to keep you among the living. Quite a while ago, I decided to take personal responsibility for your educational growth. I'm going to breach the walls of your stubborn, willful ignorance if it's the last thing I do."

"You're my partner, not my father."

"And I thank all the deities in the heavens for that fact everyday."

Syngemma's eyes narrowed and her full lips wrinkled disapprovingly in response to the Blind Watchman's rejoinder. She turned her attention back to the eerily motionless band of nomadic warriors.

A thickly built swordsman slowly stepped forward from the group towards her and Taran. Staring at them, he didn't speak for a long, uncomfortable moment as he took their measure. He was oddly dispassionate and not at all as fearsome as his attire hinted he would be. When he did, at last, speak, his deep tones and vocal cadence were one of someone unused to polite oratory.