Mortum stood before Ajax, lithe and wary of the reaction that his bad news would

give him.
“It appears that The Chain lives, Saint Ajax… I spotted them myself but a few days
ago in the city of Torringree.”
If a being without emotion could smile, it would be what Ajax presented here. A sly
look, with his lips curved up creating dimples upon his fair-skinned cheeks.
He stood and began to hover closer to Mortum, leaving the grandiose golden throne
that he sat upon. He hovered, as if the act of walking was beneath him.
“I just don’t understand… I threw the biggest maelstrom that I could muster, they
should not be alive. I almost didn’t believe my own eyes, Saint.” Mortum’s voice
quivered, his head filling with vivid recreations of what Ajax would do to him for
such a failure.
Ajax neared Mortum and stopped but a foot away from him. He extended out a hand,
revealing sickly, pale fingers that were long and slender, and stroked the side of
Mortum’s face, up and down from the bottom of his chin to the edge of the silver
skullcap that he wore.
“No, Mortum. This is not that surprising,” Ajax’s voice was deep and booming,
echoing through the royal chamber as is under the effects of Thaumaturgy.
“What is surprising, no, what I would not believe is something I saw very recently.”
He pulled from his plate armour a small handheld device with a black edge and a
reflective surface. He pushed a button, and a flash of light appeared and a strange,
animated drawing appeared on the screen.
“Do you see this, Mortum?” Ajax’s voice began to grow. The animation continued,
showcasing what appeared to be a strange, circular cucumber with bumps along its
skin. What appeared to be a human’s hand reached out and flipped it over, revealing
this strange cucumber to have a face upon it.
“I’M PICKLE RICK!!!!!” The cucumber’s face said in a nasally, whining tone.
“Do you see this, Mortum? This is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen in my life. I almost
didn’t believe it at first.” Mortum’s eyes widened. Why hadn’t he thought of this? To
become a pickle.
“HE turned himself into a pickle, Mortum. This is the only thing I have seen that has
shocked me to my very core.” Ajax clenched his fist and crushed the device into
thousands of small pieces.