Faceless Destroyer

"What the hell was that?" Doro asked indignantly.

I was silent, and Alex said nothing either. I smelled tobacco from the left: an old freebooter with a long mustache was smoking and drinking his beer.

"It's closed!" Doro shouted at him. Then he gave me an accusing glance, turned on his heels and left for his room.

I looked at Alex and asked, "How are you?"

"Could be better," he grimaced.

"D’you have a headache?"

He nodded.

I went behind the counter and found the bottle of electro-violet liquid, which I poured into the glass.

"Drink it. You'll feel better."

He tapped the glass with his fingernail.

"What is it?"

"Don't be afraid, it's not poison."

He stopped arguing and drank it. Doro called his potion the Throat Scratcher, and it made sense. Alex was speechless for a while. Tears streamed from his eyes, and his face changed a dozen shades before it returned to its normal color.

"What was that?" he asked with difficulty after he had recovered, "Dragon bile?"

"No, it contains many ingredients. But you'd better not know what it was. How is your head? Does it still hurt?"

"No!" he replied in amazement. "No, really. How cool!"

"You see! Just listen to the expert! Are you hungry?"

"Strange as it may seem, I am," he agreed.

I made a welcoming gesture and led Alex into the kitchen. There I put some food in the basket and we went upstairs to my room.

Soon we were eating sandwiches, sitting in the chairs near the low table.

"How do you know Morgana?" Alex asked.

"Morgana? You mean Mara?" I asked in turn. Then I was thoughtful for a long time. I didn't want to answer the question because I remembered how stupid I had been.

"She was my girlfriend once," I finally said, looking at my cup of coffee and the whitish mist on its black surface. "That was a long time ago. Today I met her for the first time in twelve years."

"How interesting," Alex said in surprise. "You're a lucky man, Archie. Did you know she was a vampire?"

I rubbed my neck, which still bore the scars of her fangs.

"I did."

Alex looked at my face closely.

"You're not a vampire," he concluded.

"Of course I'm not! She didn't dare to make it to her chief's nephew."

Alex's eyebrows went up.

"We were both working in the Lace Patrol at the time," I explained.

"Oh, I guess the uniform fits her," Alex hummed. "I never expected anything like that from my cousin. What was she doing there?"

"Working as a public relations manager," I replied, taking a sip of coffee. "I don't want to talk about her anymore."

"Arthur, are you by any chance a descendant of the Great Master?" Alex asked after a while.

"Who? Me? Are you kidding?"

"I was just thinking," Alex scratched his beard. "You didn't turn into a vampire even though Morgana bit you. As far as I know, that's only possible for the Master's descendants."

"That's nonsense!" I laughed. "I am from Earth. No one there has ever heard of the Lace or the Great Master!"

Alex, however, kept looking at me inquisitively, and I turned away to avoid his gaze.

A descendant of the Great Master! You wish!

Unfortunately, my father was a master of drinking, and my mother was just like him. They died in a fire caused by an unattended cigarette. Luckily, I was in a summer camp at the time. That’s all.

"I'm sorry," Alex said. I understood that I had said it out loud and felt confused. I had never told this story to anyone before. Only my uncle Vlad, who still worked at the Coordinating Council, knew about it.

"That's in the past," I muttered.

Then there was silence. I was thinking about my unhappy childhood and my uncle who had taken me like a kitten into his house to show me real life. It was my uncle who had taught me martial arts, who had shown me how to use a blade and other kinds of weapons, who had taken me to the Lace and led me to the Academy of Coordinating Service. He was so proud of my progress and career development (from Patrol to Coordinator and then to Elite Intelligence). I knew he was really upset when I quit my job. But he didn't leave me even then. I visited him from time to time, and it turned out that he was always aware of my adventures, and his advice always came in handy.

"Okay, what are our plans?" I asked Alex, breaking the long silence.

Alex, whose mind was far away, stared at me in confusion.

"Plans?" he asked. "What plans?"

"I'm talking about the situation with Irrat and the man you call Haighwerg," I explained. "You are not going to leave it like that, are you?"

Alex clenched his fists and said, "The traitor will pay for everything!"

Then he turned to the window. There was a crimson dawn behind it.

"Haighwerg is my relative," he said finally, without turning his head. "The Faceless Destroyer! Damn him! We’ve underestimated him!" Alex shook his head. "No one believed he would dare invade Irrat. No one believed he could..."

He stopped talking. I heard only the rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds outside the window.

My brain was processing the information at an accelerated rate. A few words from the prince gave me the answers to all my boss's questions. Actually, I doubted that Parsel would be happy with the situation, but that wasn't my problem. All I had to do was find a way to send him the information. I didn't trust couriers and I couldn't go to the headquarters myself. I couldn't leave Alex, not right now.

"We have to stop him!" Alex shouted, turning to me. "This is not just about the throne. The Faceless Destroyer serves Chaos. He wants to destroy the Lace!"

Another time I would never believe this, but now I just asked, "Is it really possible?"

Alex nodded. Then he stood up, walked around the room, looked out the window at the empty street and the nearest buildings, and finally sat down on the windowsill.

"It really is, " he said somberly. "Moreover, it had almost happened once before. The reason was elementary stupidity, not malice."

"You're talking about the Shadow and the second coming of the Great Master, aren't you?" I clarified.

"I am! Except that the Great Master was nowhere near there. But that doesn't matter now," he looked out the window again.

"Is there anything interesting outside?" I asked.

"I'm waiting for visitors," Alex explained. "If Morgana tells her father about our meeting, he will send someone after us."

"Her father?"

"Yes. She is Haighwerg's daughter. Haven't I told you?"

"No."

"Now I have," Alex grinned wryly. "They don't have a very good relationship, though. So maybe I have nothing to worry about."

I shrugged. As far as I remembered, Mara used to solve her problems on her own. But she could also change habits.

"So, about the Lace," Alex returned to the previous topic. "Everything that has a beginning will find an end. Only the stirring Chaos is eternal. Everything that begins in it will end in it. It is an axiom, Archie. One of the basic laws of the universe."

"In this case, what's the point of doing anything?" I hummed. "One way or another, we all end up there."

"You are right. But I'd rather die of old age and wish the same to the Lace. Hmm, what was I talking about? Ah, yes! According to the law I’ve mentioned, the Great Master couldn't make the Lace exist forever, yet he did his best to make it exist as long as possible. At the same time, however, he created the keys that can help one destroy it. The ancient manuscripts even contain instructions on how to do this."

I whistled. "What the hell did he need that for?"

"I think those were the rules of the game."

"The game?"

"They say that was a game," the prince shrugged. "The Great Master himself came from Chaos. He was either a son or a brother of the Formless. No one knows who he was or how he thought. In fact, none of the records mention why he created the Lace.  Actually, if he didn't have a body at that moment, he didn't need a ground or oxygen to breathe. What was the Lace to him: a work of art, an experimental field, or an attempt to change the rules of the eternal game of his race?"

I stared at my boots and said nothing. There was too much information, and the interpretations were too unexpected.

"I‘ve never thought of the Lace like that," I confessed, squinting at my companion, "You would be considered a blasphemer in Oeldiv."

"Maybe," Alex agreed. "The view from the outskirts is always different from what you see from the center."

I nodded, even though I wasn't sure I understood the prince's words. But I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"The keys of the Great Master," I reminded Alex. "Haighwerg talked about the keys too."

"He did. He has been searching for the keys for many years in order to destroy the Lace. There are seven keys. Each of them is a powerful artifact in itself. Even with one key, an experienced magician can do a lot. I really can't imagine what one can do if he collects them all. If Haighwerg gets the keys, we are doomed."

"But getting the keys is not the end yet," I tried to argue. "Making  plans is one thing, but destroying the universe is quite another. Are you sure your relative has the courage to carry out his plans?"

"He's been serving the Formless for ages and has had plenty of time to think things over. Haighwerg killed his newborn son because it was predicted that the baby was the only person who could ruin his plans."

Damn it! A few days ago I actually liked that bastard!