Thal, Khsan
An eerie silence creeped in, with every passing moment the world become eerily quiet. The sounds of their surroundings disappeared, replace by an uncomfortable silence. Neil glanced at Rowan, the man had a calm smile on his face.
He stared at the unmoving river with expectancy, fear slowly creeped in. It was as if the world itself was holding its breath.
Then — the river stirred.
A faint ripple broke across its surface, small at first, then spreading, disturbing the mirror-like calm. Something beneath was moving. The water darkened, thickened, as though resisting what was rising from below.
Neil's heart pounded. He took a step back. Rowan didn't move.
From the center of the river, a figure emerged.
At first it looked like a man, but the illusion broke the moment moonlight touched him. His flesh was pale — too pale — with the softness of something long submerged.
Water clung to him in rivulets, dripping soundlessly back into the current. And there, in his chest, was a hollow — a dark, rotting wound where his heart should have been.
The air grew thick. The smell of damp earth and decay rolled across the riverbank. The world was silent still — no wind, no birds, not even the sound of the water. Only the slow, deliberate steps of the thing that walked out of the river.
When he finally reached the shallows, he stopped. His head tilted, bones creaking faintly, and his gaze empty and distant found theirs.
Rowan's smile deepened.
"I thought you would never come."
Neil subconsciously took a step back, the thing in front of them gazed at him and made every Fibre of being shudder. And then it regarded Rowan for a while before, breaking into a cruel dark smile.
"You have finally kept your end of the bargain, good."
It nodded and took several steps forward, no sound came from his actions.
Rowan stood confidently with his hands behind his back but Neil did notice that the man's hands were slightly trembling.
"Did you return the little girl to her parents?" Rowan asked, the thing smile only deepened. It stopped before Rowan and it held out it's hand expectant.
Rowan took off his hat and reached inside it revealing the skull Neil had seen him take out back at his hideout, he placed the skull in its hand.
It took the skull and examined it for a moment, it glanced at Rowan with a questioning gaze and brought the skull to his face.
"Blood?" it asked
Rowan chuckled nervously.
"Uh, yes I hurt my hand and got blood on it."
Despite his fear Neil still raised a brow at Rowan's explanation, he claimed to have hurt himself but as for what mundane object could have penetrated his skin skin Neil did not know. System bearers had physical augmentation regardless of the path and they also had a small healing capability for small wounds.
The creature's empty sockets seemed to flare faintly with some inner gleam as it turned the skull in its hand. A low, wet sound escaped it — something between a sigh and a rumble, like water boiling under ice.
Rowan swallowed.
"I trust... this satisfies our agreement."
The figure tilted its head again, the motion jerky, like a marionette pulled by an uncertain hand.
"For the most part."
Neil's heart tightened at the phrasing. His eyes darted between the two — Rowan's strained composure and the thing's impossible stillness.
"What agreement?" he asked, his voice quieter than he intended.
Neither answered him.
Instead, the river's surface behind the creature began to churn, rippling outward in widening circles. From the black depths rose faint shapes — silhouettes moving beneath the water, dozens, maybe hundreds, stirring restlessly.
Rowan's breath quickened. "They're here," he murmured, almost to himself. "You'll keep your promise now."
The creature turned its gaze toward him.
"I keep all bargains, mortal. You shall have your army, your legion of unseen hands, your instruments in your quest for revenge. "
Neil took a step backward, confusion etched across his face. "Revenge, what are you—?"
Rowan's voice cut through him, soft and playful.
"I feel almost sorry for you your lordship."
The creature's head turned sharply toward Neil, and suddenly he understood — the silence, the calm, the unease that had crawled up his spine since they'd arrived.
He was an offering to the Cospirer.
The figure took another step forward, and though its feet touched the river sand, not a sound followed. The air itself seemed to bend around it.
Neil backed away slowly. "You ****** idiot."
Rowan flinched, eyes darting away. " No, your lordship. I am a businessman ," he whispered. "I have business to settle with your leader."
The creature raised a pale, dripping hand toward Neil. "The vessel is strong," it murmured, voice layered — one tone human, another deep and reverberating like something spoken from within a well. "He will do nicely."
Neil stumbled backward, his boots catching the wet stones of the riverbank. The world around him wavered — the air thickened, the smell of rot grew heavier.
Rowan smiled away turning away. "Goodbye your lordship, If I fail I would be joking you in the after life pretty soon."
But Neil could not hear him, his eyes were on the thing in front of him. The Framework had been screaming in his ear the whole time since the thing stepped out of the water:
[Signal Detected…]
[Framework Initialization... .]
[Greater Archon Conspirer detected.]
[Framework warning:Run! Run!! Run!!!]
Neil shook his head in rejection, what was a Greater Archon? Why was his luck so poor, with a month of becoming a Deadman he had came face to face with death on both of his missions. Well he could not really label this as a mission it was akin to suicide and yet he had no one to blame it on, he agreed to meet Rowan on his own.
He watched as the hand slowly approached him and he could not even run.
Neil's breath came in ragged gasps as the figure's hand closed the space between them. The silence roared in his ears. And when the thing finally touched him cold, impossibly cold the river itself screamed.