Malachi watched the outlaw drown his sorrows, quite literally, in whiskey and shook his head. When offered a drink a moment later, he chuckled, his smirk broadening into a wide grin as he held up a hand. "I'm afraid there's a reason my people avoid... er avoidED harder liquors, Law," he said. "Last time I drank that stuff, I woke up in the middle of a crater with only my sword belt and the remains of a single leg of my trousers. Still don't know what happened that night...
"Well, do you know what happened HERE?" someone ventured. The others nodded in agreement, a murmur going through the camp. As the man who was not only the funding, but the driving force behind this expedition, surely Malachi would know something more about the Lost Righteous. In a strange way he almost seemed as though he belonged here- something about his person fit in with the enigmatic air of this place.
And there it was again- that unreadable half-smile that bordered between a sarcastic smirk and something much more... knowing. The Archai stretched a bit as he walked back into the circle of light, his figure seemingly nonchalant. Despite his calm exterior, he wandered how much he could tell them. After all, all that he had to go on what exactly the Lost Righteous was was a hunch- and two other expeditions of experience. As he commenced removing his boots and shaking them out, he decided that it couldn't hurt to give them a TASTE.
A lot happened, he said simply. A lot of things the Archai never expected... We weren't prepared, and it was no one's fault but our own. But during the "Shining Era of the 9 Worlds", we made this place our own. A nostalgic grin broke across his face as he looked across the desert, stretched out ahead of them like a barren blanket. It was so different, so warped and twisted from what he remembered, and for a moment, his expression soured as he reflected on what had become of the once lush, flowing landscape that had been his home.
You speak as though you actually saw it, Binadorm quietly muttered, and they were surprised by the Archai's answer.
I did.
But that would mean-
It was a long time ago, though. A lot changed. Malachi didn't let them get too far in their pondering about what a loaded string of words that sentence was. It was a terribly simple answer, and yet it held within those few words a plethora of possibilities, a quarrel of questions, a veritable myriad of maybes, all of which directed one to think that, unlike many of the others gathered, he actually KNEW what he was talking about when it came to this "treasure".
Unfortunately, it's all lost now... All that's left of it is what's behind that door at the Pinnacle. Binadorm is right in that respect, then, I suppose, he chuckled as he leaned his head back and lay down. The Archai used his pack as a pillow and when he turned his indigo gaze up to the stars, they caught a lonely, longing expression, as one who sees his friends from a distance but can only wave and wait for them to respond.
The next morning, when the sun broke over the horizon, he was already up and about when everyone else began to stir. While they prepared to head out, he pulled the Cycron aside. "You know, you're welcome to join us, he said thoughtfully. You never know you might find something you all could use to get off this rock.
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