A Scheduled End

This second article about our Dark Earth campaign relays the last thoughts of Tybalt Hiker, shortly before his self-immolation, as Walkers retrieve a secret testament he left at the scene.

---

---

A scheduled end

Tybalt Hiker's testament

Since Ché Manégo's defection, Lars, Gabriel and Dabe had been traveling in the wake of the Crusade, a few days' journey from the column. More scavengers than walkers, the three rogues collected the waste left behind by the Celestials, with the firm intention of putting it to better use than those dandies of the Stallite. It was in the middle of an abandoned bivouac that Dabe, the only lettered man of the trio, got his hands on a parchment of Rueg hidden under a rock, as if someone had deliberately left it there. Intrigued, the man began reading it between two rounds of drinks, for the Rueg liquor surely improves his concentration.

"Testament of Frather Tybalt Hiker, Crusader despite himself."

Just from hearing the title, Lars spits out his mouthful of liquor and does not restrain a mocking laugh in the least.

• "That's it, guys, the Crusade's gem! We've finally got it!"

Dabe eyes him sideways, visibly tickled by the urge to read more, as if driven by a bravado that shall not be named. He swallows brilliantly, then puts on a pompous tone, as befits anyone mocking a Prôneur.

"These past months, I have hardly had time to pity my lot, and even less to share my sorrow with a quill and a parchment."

• "And here I thought Prôneurs 'shared their sorrow' with Solaar", Gabriel bursts out in his deep voice.

He vulgarly mimics the solar circle with his fingers, usually tattooed on the Prôneurs' foreheads, and pretends to run his member through it. Prôneurs are not popular outside the walls of Phénice.

• "Shut up, let me read on, damn it!", replies Dabe, visibly impatient to treat his pals to his impersonator's talents.

"Yet, in the twilight of my short life, it is necessary for me to confess myself"

The words "con" and "fesses" put side by side promptly trigger the hilarity of Lars and Gabriel, so much so that Dabe steps a little away from the other two to continue his reading. Behind his tough-guy airs, in the end, he is quite fond of reading.

"My superiors asked me to immolate myself, today, so as to set a precedent capable of inspiring the other crusaders. The prospect of dying hardly delights me, but truth be told, I have not really been alive for months already. Might as well throw myself into the void and thus ensure Rurik's survival, rather than struggle uselessly for a lost cause. Mine".

The walkers' cackling stops, dead, and they put on serious faces. They knew Letho Gdanz to be cruel, disconnected from reality, but to demand human sacrifices... something is not right.

"My heart is heavy, crushed by the weight of my endless scheming, by these shortcut paths into the Darkness the Konkal makes me take. I slither on the ground like a serpent, under the nose and beard of the Bellatore and my fellow sufferers. The authorities of Phénice deserve nothing but contempt: if the Konkal is deliberately hostile to the idea of 'the good', the self-proclaimed forces of light commit just as many atrocities, hiding behind their rancid, deadly ideals. To whoever is lucky enough to find this testament, here is a testimony worth all the lux in the world."

Dabe looks up and treats his comrades to a worried glance. He goes on, with noticeably less enthusiasm than before:

"More than two years ago, shortly after I came of age, I was captured by the Konkal while we were investigating the sinister kidnapping of Letho Gdanz's daughter. My companions and I were on our way to the villains' lair, and they fully expected to let us leave with the girl. On the spot, I was tortured: the physical pain was so dreadful that the mere thought of being subjected to it again was enough to make me obey. Worse still, my tormentors truly opened my eyes to certain realities of the world I refused to see: if Solaar ever existed, he has abandoned us. Everywhere, the lights flicker, and only the worthy - those with the strength to survive in the darkness - will be able to go on existing. The others can only postpone their inexorable end, or hope that this insignificant gain in time will allow them to adapt in their turn. As if that were not enough, the Konkal also threatened Rurik, my little brother, with execution. While that fate legitimately hung over Balthazar, Rurik is but an innocent who deserves a chance to live. I could not bring myself to abandon him."

"My first operations for the Konkal were almost non-disruptive. We are talking about harmless pieces of intelligence, a simple helping hand from time to time. As for my traveling companions, they proved quite open to the world's reality, even though I could not fully trust them: Walgard, for instance, showed more than a receptive ear regarding the fate of the Dark-Son we were forced to put down. Ilke never held the hierarchy in his heart, he who lived - just like me - every day the injustice of the treatment reserved for us without reason. As for Sigurd, he seemed the least inclined to embrace the Konkal's ideal, but faced with three resolved friends, he would have caved as well. Thus, I was able to depose my idiot of an elder almost openly in front of my friends: I merely had to invoke resentment and jealousy, even though the main reason was to bring opprobrium upon the experiments Phénice conducted on the Dark-Sons. The mission was a success.

Likewise, when I knowingly murdered Drunsen, my comrades never suspected my perfectly guilty intention. The man and his cave stood as a banner, a hope for the Walkers of Dark Earth: the Konkal could not let him live."

At these words, the Walkers' faces fall. It is as if time had stopped, while the three comrades digest this information.

• "That son of a bitch, it was him who got Drunsen!".

Lars explodes with anger and feints snatching the pages from Dabe's hands, but Gabriel grabs him to prevent it.

• "Wait, Lars, let me finish, there might be other important things in there!"

"Drunsen was only a beginning. Left to my own devices within the crusade, watched by my Konkal superiors without knowing whom to turn to for support, I tried to undermine my companions' morale by every means possible. To sow doubt in them, too, about the whole General Staff, which seemed more than happy to appear as cowards and incompetents. What can be said of them, when they knowingly exiled the Walkers, their best hope? This thoughtless gesture very nearly brought down the plans of one side as well as the other.

For the Konkal, the watchword was clear: 'the Crusade must reach its destination, but with morale lower than dirt'. My greatest success was probably poisoning Aton Sumak, our 'savior' who licked the boots of the Konkal's invisible enemies. Do I feel guilt over it? Asking the question might be the beginning of an answer. But rationally, this man deserved no pity: a willing pawn, dragging other pions into a dance from which no one would emerge unscathed. In the end, his own people act just like the Konkal, hypocrisy on top.

I could not, however, bring myself to let the colony be destroyed, since Rurik was part of it. Perhaps having suggested blocking its road will save my soul with Solaar, if indeed the Konkal was wrong and the Divine still watched over us. In any case, Rurik has a chance to wash the Hiker name, even in the deepest reaches of the Ferraille. May he seize it, and may he let my name, along with Father's and Balthazar's, fall into oblivion.

The Legion of the Damned was another sizable advantage for the Konkal. Pathetically beaten by the Crusaders during its 'decisive assault', it took my expertise to allow it to shine as it deserved. I am no general, and yet the targeted, stealthy attacks on the Crusade's scouts, as well as the raid during the General Staff meeting, had a far more deterrent effect on the Celestials' morale. As for the coup de grâce, well, Letho Gdanz and his close allies seem skilled enough to erode their troops' trust without any help from enemies within or without. Who knows, maybe the Crusade never reaches its destination and blows up along the way. I will not be there to see it anyway."

The vulgar jokes and choked gullets have given way to silence and consternation. Dabe, Lars and Gabriel stare into the void, lost in their thoughts. Forces they could not imagine had been plotting to sow discord within the Crusade, and the document they hold in their hands reveals part of it to them.

"I confess to having had the hope - for a few moments - of making myself so useful that the Konkal would let me live. And that this life, desired by these Dark spawn, would have allowed me to reconnect, if only a little, with dignity. It was not to be. Today, I bid the world farewell. If this earthly existence reserves a few good surprises for the blessed, I wish my traveling companions to be among them, for their innocence preserves them from the corruption of the soul, like Rurik: may they find happiness, far from Phénice and its light, so blinding that it prevents one from seeing reality. Far from the dark lands, where no soul thrives."

Darkness falls upon the abandoned bivouac, tearing Dabe, Lars and Gabriel from their reflections. Soon, they will have to find a less exposed shelter to rest. Then, and only then, will they be able to wonder what to do with this information, and with the testament of the miserable Tybalt Hiker, dead for causes he no longer believed in.