Judgement (The Twelve) (16 page)

Priest belched, “
Anvil was the first chosen by God to protect the human race. When he died he was still dressed in his
rough hide
jerkin, trousers, boots and his blacksmiths leather apron.
His clothing became the blue print for the rest of us.
A little bit of earth magic’s in these clothes. They’re our armour in a spiritual manner of speaking. Blessed by the Elder race, pure clean and sanctified. There are others but you don’t need to meet them yet.”

Chris had another idea, “If Dwarfs a
re the real deal. Then next you’
ll be telling me there are Elves and the like.”
Chris laughed but no one joined in.

He gaped, “You are joking!”

Patch shuddered, “The
re
are Elves Chris
,
and their
real names are The Ellish. They have souls as black as hell. They support The Dark as Dwarfs support us. Luckily they number less than a hundred. Hope that you never meet one. Anvil did, he battled
with it
for three solid days and nights. In the end he prevailed and the Ellish was driven off mortally wounded. Anvil took almost a year to
fully
recover.”

Chris was totally gob smacked. What next?

Patch continued, “Chris you’ve only seen Shades, a ghoul and some of The Dark. God chose the
T
welve to be the protectorate of mankind against ALL things evil. There are monsters out there Chris. They lurk in the darkness, creep through shadows,
hide under childrens beds, creep through your nightmares and basically feed on human fear
. God in his divine wisdom created us to combat these creatures that were spawned
b
y the Devil.
”

Chris was beginning to see the bigger picture, “Then you haven’t just spent years and years, fighting The Dark here in London?”

Priest belched, “Pardon me! No dear boy, we’ve travelled the world to fight these monsters
,
the Ellish, Paramons, Slith, Trolls and recently the
Gints
in Morocco. I hate Gints, they live in the hottest climates and I can’t stand the heat.
It just so happens that you’ve arrived when we need you the most
here in London
. It
’s
The Darks turn to feel the wraith of God.”

Chris nodded,
“
Okay forget about all these other monsters out there for now. I’m having enough trouble processing everything that’s happened to me as it is. Now t
his Edge character mentioned someone called
C
hameleon and I can count. Is he the twelve member of your group and if so where is he?”

Everyone fell silent, some looked away, others stared at the ground, and even Rage suddenly looked very upset.

Finally Priest cleared his
throat; s
orrow clearly showed on Priests face and grief stricken was his voice, “In the year 144BC, there existed in ancient Greece, a young actor who was renowned for his adaptation of the works of
Aristophanes
, a famous Greek playwright. His comedies were
well received
throughout Greece.

Now this young actor was also well known for his mimicry of famous Greek officials. Some said, you could not tell them apart. The young man made many friends but also many powerful enemies. One of whom was General Diaeus. Oh he laughed along with the other spectators, when our young friend made mockery in jest at his expense. But inside he was seething with anger, vowing that someday he would remove this troublesome actor from his life and this world.

The following year there was a great battle against the might of the Roman Empire.
The Achaean general
Diaeus
led some fourteen thousand foot and six hundred cavalry against a combined Roman army of twenty eight thousand men under the command of The Roman consul
Mummius
. To cut a long story short, the Greeks won the first victory but in the end the Roman army destroyed them, the survivors fled to the Greek city of Corinth, the birth place and home of our young actor.

The Romans sacked the City, killing, looting and setting fire to many a building. The Greek General, realising all was lost and that he faced certain death or slavery at the hands of the Romans. Ordered some of his most trusted men to burn to the ground the lodging house where our young actor was staying.

Fifteen men
,
women and three children perished in that blaze. I know this because it was witnessed by Anvil who was present in the city. Our actor managed to escape the blaze but was on fire and staggering about in flames. Anvil smothered the flames but so severe was his injuries. Anvil could only sit and comfort him as he lay dying. Now three of the Generals men saw this and attacked Anvil with the intention of making sure of the actors death.

Anvil drew himself up and with his hammer did smite his foes. Alas the actor died
,
but gloriously was re-born as Chameleon. His pain was swept away, but his deformities where so severe, it was said he became a man without a face.

Anvil will not talk of his injuries
,
only that Chameleon wore from that day forth, a face mask, gloves and a hooded cape of fine leather. Chameleon quickly discovered his powers, when by chance they stumbled upon forty legionaries. Instantly he became the carbon copy of the Roman consul
Mummius
. He took
the description taken directly from the solders own memories. Of course they allowed Chameleon and Anvi
l to pass
and that is how he was re-born, renamed and fled Greece together with Anvil and Rage.
Oh we know about the Generals intentions and feelings towards Chameleon
, b
ecause Rage got the truth out of the General before br
e
aking his neck.
“

“
Over the years, his skills proved to be of immense value as The Twelve grew and expanded in number. But during all that time he preferred to be on his own
whenever he could
. A sorrowful character
that
never again showed his face to us
,
or anyone else. The only person he occasionally bonded with was Rage.”

Priest glanced over at Rage who added, “Yes with my size and hunch
ed
back, I guess he sort of empathised.” He glared at Speed who was smiling, “Yes I can use big words and a big fist!” He held up one to demonstrate.

Priest continued and the others fell silent, “
O
ne evening
,
we all turned in for the night. The next
morning as the sun rose early on a crisp
winter’s
day
he went out early to reconnoitre and
vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.”

Chris looked to Anvil,” I thought once you’re re-born you’re sort of bonded to The Twelve?”

Anvil
opened his mouth but
allowing Priest to answer, “Yes that’s right Chris. To be given the opportunity to feel, breath, see and hear again
, is
a gift that cannot be ignored
lightly
, e
specially when the gift comes from the Creator of all life. We know why he gave us this second life and we
’ve all
embrac
ed
it. But why Chameleon
vanished
is a mystery. One we’ve never been able to answer. W
e
searched for him of course and will continue to search. I know inside here.” Priest placed a meaty hand over his heart, “That he still lives.
Otherwise he would have been replaced.
Therefore although departed
,
we are still Twelve in total.”

Chris was trying to take all this in, when Patch
interrupted his thoughts
again
,
“
Okay
my turn
,
so
listen up and try to believe what
I’m
going to tell you.”

Patch stood there and told Chris
the condensed version of her life. Sh
e
was born
part Japanese part Irish. Her father had been a sailor
from Hollywood near Belfast,
who’d visited Japan in 1854. He’d met this Japanese daughter of a local merchant and fallen in l
ust
with her. When the time came for him to depart those shores, he left behind a pregnant and disgraced girl and a broken family. Cast out she had learned to live a life as a whore in the local taverns. When her baby daughter was born, she abandoned her on the doorsteps of a wealthy Samurai.  His servants found her and would have drowned the baby if their Lord had not intervened. His own wife and baby son had been killed in a house fire not twelve months past.

He took the baby in and as she grew, he taught her the ways of a Sam
urai warrior. It was forbidden of course for a woman to take up arms and eventually one of his servants, with a loose tongue made the mistake of
discussing
it over one to many cups of sake.  The local magistrate was informed and
acting with a warrant signed by the Shoguns chamberlain,
sent men to arrest the Samurai and his adopted daughter.

But the magistrate had over stepped his authority
and the Samurai slaughtered the four men sent to lay hands upon him and his. Hearing this, the Shogun had the magistrate flogged and thrown out of the village. However
after his chamberlain heard how angry his master has been and realising he had over stepped his place, committed Se
p
aku. S
o
in order to save face,
the Shogun was forced to sign
a death warrant for the Samurai.

The Samurai of course was allowed to take the honourable way out and
like the Chamberlain also
committed
Sep
a
ku. The daughter,
hidden from sight by order of her step father, witnessed his death. Driven by an overwhelming sense of grief and wroth, bade her time until one fateful morning whilst the Shogun was being taken to a nearby castle, ambushed the convoy. With no concern for her own safety, she slew dozens of men believed to be some of the fin
est warriors in the land. Mortally wounded she still managed to reach the Shoguns carriage. She threw her fathers Tanto (a short dagger used to slice open the belly when committing Sep
a
ku) into the startled Shoguns lap.