Charon looked more pale and withdrawn than she had ever before, she was working hard on many fronts including trying to keep Mortismere and Dylious busy while serving the Arcanes but her primary concern was Darkspades evil soul sucking piece of shit knight. She rubbed her forehead for what seemed like the billionth time, her little altercation with Dylious had served many purposes including how strong he was mentally and physically, what sort of power he had and how heavily he was being influenced by Mortismere. Now she just had to figure out how to get it all to fit together.

Her mind whirled with information but mostly with exhaustion, she might be unkillable, however, it didn't mean she didn't get tired like anyone else and right now she was only conscious because she'd just downed enough caffeine and sugar to cause a normal person to go and run a hundred marathons.

She was sat in front of a huge bank of servers and monitors, they all seemed to merge into one after awhile.

"By 'eck chief I'm nithered!"

Charon jumped at the unfamiliar voice, she spun round, there was no one there. She looked up at one of the screens where a YouTube video was playing. She rubbed at her face hard as she stared at a slightly built man, with a dark slightly unkempt mop of hair, intense blue eyes outlined by dark, long eyelashes and massive sideburns. He had a couple of days growth of stubble and was wearing an ill-fitting pair of blue overalls with his name over the pocket but when the man grinned it was like looking at a male model except his blackened, greasy hands gave him away as a mechanic. The accent had startled her, it was an accent she hadn't heard in quite some time.

She watched fascinated as the next video was of the same man racing a motorcycle, it was almost strange to see such a contrast. He seemed to have absolutely no fear as he raced recklessly around a road course which she realised was the TT in the Isle of Man, again another place she hadn't been too for many years. An idea began to form in her head, one triggered by her own love of going as fast as possible on a motorbike. The idea was interrupted by a sudden eruption of noise as the rider lost control of his fully fuelled bike at the corner known as "Ballascary" that wasn't it's real name, that's what all the bikers called it. The bike rounded the corner, as it did the front slid out, the rider abandoned his bike which ran across the road at 170mph, smashed into the wall and exploded in a huge fireball. The rider can't be seen until maybe twenty seconds later when he slid out the other side of the inferno, clearly unconscious, in fact, the marshals on the course don't bother to rush assuming the rider to be dead.

Charon watched fascinated as the rider moved and then there was a flurry of movement as several people rush to help but she was no longer watching the rider, she was watching the shadow standing near the corner, the one responsible for the horrifying slide. The shadow realm still held answers.

(open post)