The Fall Of The Tribes

by Philip Read

  “Just about, I’m not sure I killed her. Bloody bitch was quick.” Yolanda responds. I grunt at that.

  “Let’s get off this stupid continent before Damian realizes we betrayed the Circle without betraying the cause. I neat loophole to exploit considering the severity of the marks on our souls.” I say.

  “You know his name?” She asks surprised. I snort at that.

  “As if I’d let a man soul mark me without knowing everything about him.”

  Yolanda nods as move from the trees to the vast open grasslands of the tundra. Only place to take over is behind these small hills, otherwise anyone can see you coming kms away.

  I like that Yolanda doesn’t underestimate my genius. Probably the only reason I involved her when the spirit of Vritra approached me.

  “Do you think he will find the others within the Circle?” She asks after a few moments.

  “They aren’t to reveal themselves as betrayers till after the ceremony. By that point the soul marks will have faded. He won’t be a problem.”

  “Then they will kill him.” Yolanda says.

  I snort at that. “If they want to die horribly they will kill him.”

  She raises a questioning eyebrow at that. “He’s that powerful?” She asks surprised.

  “Not that much more powerful no, but very clever. Anyways it’s not him but his father that’s the problem. The old fucker always avenges his children, he is known for it.”

  “Who is his father?”

  “Ever heard of Aaron the Black Wizard?” I ask.

  “Shit!”

  “Exactly.”

  *

  Unknown/Damian

  “Something is wrong, Diana’s group should be back by now.”

  I say looking at everyone around me in the eye. I know everyone here a little better now as a side effect of this little excursion. We’ve been together for over a year now, almost two when including travel time to get here. Some of them I realized I have much more in common with, others that I despise to the core of my being.

  “Could be they got delayed by all the fighting.” Robert adds with a shrug.

  “None on this little continent are their equal, it wouldn’t even be a match. No, something went wrong. Assad, you and Florence go check it out. Send one of your agents to the nearest barbarian battle group to check their movements, and another to check the southern allied armies.”

  Both Florence and Assad leave immediately, my two most trusted left hands. Florence’s trustworthiness only recently fully established but he’s already proving himself invaluable.

  “Alright on to more important things. We all saw and felt the birth of a new world and we all heard the message from the world. This new ‘earth’ is to be a refuge for the coming calamity.

  “Everyone is on high alert for what we are about to do so I want us off this rock and onto Pangaea as quickly as possible.

  “Asgar, how much ore have we collected?”

  “Something close to 420kgs.” The old man says without hesitation, him being the current keeper of all that wealth, something that both guarantees his life and imperials it.

  “How soon can we get all the necessary ingredients and work the circle?” Uria ask to be scowled at by the irritable Cecile.

  “We were at least a year away from activating the circle and it will take at least another five to seven years to fully activate it unless we depopulate a small city in sacrifices.” She says annoyed from her excavation of ore, something she sees as beneath her.

  “Something that would call too much attention onto us. No, seven years is early enough. We’ve made enough enemies as is.” Nadia says sagely.

  In contrast to Cecile Nadia has discovered that she thoroughly enjoys this little continent and its isolated innocent people. A woman that has never left Pangaea that is discovering her love for exploration. At only 63 years old she is the youngest member of the inner circle.

  “It would be quicker if we used the ore to fuel the circle.” Arinius says, silencing the room.

  The man is very strange, being the only Romanæn amongst either inner or outer circle no one really understands him. Then he says something like this and I no idea of whether to kill him quickly or appease him.

  The fucker is too loyal to whatever spirit he worships. Who in their right minds would sacrifice such a treasure for the benefit of a spirit they don’t even understand? This is why I hate zealots.

  We all look at each other before continuing with our preparations to get home. Its always best just to ignore the Romanæn if no one else agrees with him. He has his uses though, being the only one amongst us that has any grasp on this new type of sorcery known as faith magic.

  Very powerful thing faith, but makes absolutely no sense to anyone who isn’t a believer. Follows no discernable patterns of logic, faith. I shake my head just thinking about it.

  * *

  By the time Florence and Assad returned with a catatonic Diana struggling spiritually with a spirit trying to possess her we are ready to go.

  Even as Assad gives his report it is immediately apparent that fat Albert betrayed us. No one else would have been able to manifest a spirit strong enough to give Diana such a challenge, not even in her injured state.

  “The remains of Fistio, Vostok and Adrian are all we found. Not a speck of ore anywhere within the vicinity. And no sign of Yolanda and Albert.” Assad finishes his report.

  “I always knew not to thrust that fat fuck.” Uria says with venoms. Its surprisingly Nadia that seems most distraught as she looks at Diana.

  “Ok, we can’t dedicate the time needed to look for them. And though they’ve betrayed us personally they haven’t broken the contract we made with the spirits or they would be dead.

  “We will carry Diana back to Crestia and leave her at the manor as comfortable as we can make her. We can’t dedicate anyone to guard her either though besides the servants and spies-”

  “There is a team of four members of the outer circle on this continent taking care of an errand.” Assad says and it immediately clicks what that errand might be.

  “Who?” Nadia ask.

  “Questico, Skhar, Scarpa and Joseph.”

  “Pffhh… That brute and the eery twins and the kid that let himself be possessed.” She says with a scowl.

  “They will do, I will do a sending and contact them as soon as we are out of this tundra and tents. Let’s go, we will discuss everything else on the way.”

  Chapter 36

  Daarkside

  There are two main parts to the Underworld know as the Lightside and the Daarkside.

  As you can imagine the Lighsight is the part of the Underworld that has light. Though said light in not sunlight or particularly bright, it is more than enough for the denizens of the Underworld. Most of which develop darkvission their first year of life, never having been exposed to true sunlight.

  The second part is known as the Daarkside because of its utter and complete darkness. A place with a darkness so thick and physically present it feels like a thick viscous fluid parked tightly together, sentient, sapient.

  Where even those with the darkvision skill are lost for the skill needs microfilaments of light to be useful. Where creatures that harness darkness as weapon, breath it in, or are born into it stay and thrive. Where sight is an unnecessary sense relegated to be tertiary sense at best.

  This is the place where Celphata the deity of darkness is called old friend, and darksiders dwell. Creatures known throughout the underworld not to be fucked with on their own turf. Where the reapers of souls that have cleansed the Underworld of life on more than one occasion throughout the ages.

  There a crack to the surface opens, and a sleaver of darkness reaches upward to visit the surface world.

  *

  Sachi

  I wake up slowly, my mind first processing what had happened to me. The epic fight I was involved in, the revelations that were revealed to me about combat and the true form of the beautiful killing art I
should be striving towards, the level of power I had acquired in my/our struggle against such a worthy for.

  Then my body awakens, and the bone deep pain within my body starts seeping in like a deep frost permeating into my body. I groan producing more agony in my mouth that immediately causes me to convulse slightly. The jolt itself what my body needed to try to compensate for the pain by making it spread evenly throughout the body.

  Permeating everything eventually so I’m not holsted in any one direction and unnecessarily hurt myself further. I breath through my nose deeply and furiously trying to calm myself and understand what the fuck is happening to me. Why I can’t move my arms, why my jaw is stuck wide open.

  It takes a minute for me to calm down enough to realise I’m in an infamary, meaning in Paradisum, meaning no immediate danger and yeah, I’m ‘fucken’ alive.’

  I don’t know what did it but a small tremor on the ground caused my foot to divert a second and I saw his counter coming as though I’d been shown a divine revelation. But I couldn’t stop it, nor could I fully dodge it, not without stabbing myself straight through the foot anyways.

  And I did with no hesitation. Bringing myself to an almost complete hult by being skewered on my own blade by the foot. His blade still doing everything it intended to do to me but being a cm further than it intended to be. Just enough for a barbarian in the Rage to survive long enough to reach a fae healer, if just barely.

  I catalogue the rest of my body, feeling for anything I could, missing part. After determining how everything is as far as I can tell I stay like that, expecting for someone to come check on me, no one does.

  *

  I fall asleep and wake at least 8 times, a worrying occurrence for it means I’ve lost so much ether that I need to sleep numerous times to recuperate. Or it could mean there is no one around to check on the patients.

  I wake eventually to the sight of the old hermit beside me on a stool.

  “Well you’ve been rested enough don’t you think?” He says tapping a stick on a solid block of something holding my bones together.

  “Your friend Om is fine by the way, just a minor broken neck, nothing to worry about. The city is officially under seige as well as the fae and southerners negotiate a ‘surrender’.

  “But everything is mostly settled. In one fell swoop of the hands of the gods celestial ore becomes less expensive in human lives and less rare as it falls from the skies for children to play with thinking its a rock.” He snorts at his own cleverness.

  “You might not be aware but the southerns are falling back, I should have led with that. Officially it will be recorded in their records that we lost. Something they insist is necessary for their history records.

  “Tribes will retain their lands,” he says with a snort, “and any ore not already in the hands of the kingdom of Sandoria.

  “The slaves that have not already left the tundra are to be released and any exported slaves to be bought by the kingdom which will then sell them back to the tribes for a peace treaty.

  “After which time keeping a soul marked tribesman slave will be against the laws of the southern kingdom. It goes on in that vain but I’m sure you get the point.”

  Gorr says looking at me, speaking as though he actually expects a response, even with my mouth wired wide open. He sighs and squishes water into my mouth from something, then takes a jug and helps me drink slowly. It’s the water from Hilltown and it helps a lot.

  “But anyway I digress. As soon as Om was in shape and saw you, the boy seems like a daemon has possessed him. He has been training none stop as though trying to break his body, going so far as to neglect that new mate of his from the Highland people.”

  He shakes his head. “Kids these days not prioritizing well enough.” He sighs.

  “Anyways you’ve rested long enough so we will continue your lessons. We were still on visualization..”

  And so began my long physical recover, but my minds great awakening. My zanpakutō nestled at my back touching my skin the whole time.

  *

  Visualization is a very difficult concept to learn and apply to all aspects of my life but it is something that is necessary. I remember Asriel mentioning the importance of an Imagine when using release seals for chakra because you should always know what you want to do with a mundra sign.

  The greater your Image the stronger the released power, in most cases anyway. Imagine is important for any and all power that needs to be interpreted by the world, universe or whatever cosmic force such power comes from.

  With Gorr, who because of being blind so many years had to imagine everything around himself all the time, I learnt that visualization can be applied to everything. We started with meditation and visualization of my body, what it looks like internally, what my meridians look like, what my chakra pools look like, what my aura and spiritual pressure looks like.

  A process that took me a month while bed ridden with nothing else to do or think about much. A process that took Om the same amount of time while taking lessons during his daily visists and still dedicating his time to his new mate and his training. Its either Om is a naturally quick learner, has a knack for visualization, or I’m just slow.

  Ma and others visited almost daily as well. Da visited twice in the early days and couldn’t see me in such a state again. Teà came carrying her four year old son and a happy Dustin on the other arm. Beautiful insecure Teà who becomes as a Valkyrie of legend on the battlefield.

  My casts were eventually taken off, my healing mostly guided by natural ether, good food, rest and cleansing magic, only after my natural recovery had fone it’s best was absolute restore used. I did scare though. A beautiful silver line that runs from my jaw down to my hip across my body.

  A scare I’m told is caused by foreign destructive aura that entered my body from my opponents blade. Another surprise was Victor waking up and coming to see me. He looked me over while I was still bandaged and in bad shape with my mouth gaping open with trickles of water constantly allowed in.

  “Whoever did this to you after what you did to me must be formidable.” He said nodding his head. “It was a good fight between us though, I didn’t know you had it in you. I hope to fight besides you again someday as a comrade.” And with that he left. Not something I expected from him but my zanpakutō hummed pleasantly at the slight lingering aura of fear he had left behind.

  *

  By the time I was well enough to be let loose I was antsy to join Om in his training but got the greatest of all surprises. The arrival of Ava and nearly everyone that left with her some four years ago.

  “Did we miss all the fun?” She says to me with a grin as their party is met at the gates of Paradisum by family, friends, well wishers, and the curious.

  She engulfs me in a hug, something I always thought her too butch to do. She jumps away and into Teà‘s arms as soon as she sees her. They laugh as they hold each other, before Dustin comes forward to present the baby, Dimitri.

  Life isn’t so bad right now, it could have been much worse. Now I just need to train up and bring my babies home. I’m sure Mira and Ava will get along fine…

  Chapter 37

  Zaraya

  The moment we pass back through the barrier and into the lower dimension of Gaia I feel a slight lose of power, a lessening of the malleability of the ether around me. I look to my companions, my party. There are five of us, each secret disciplines of the Ancient that somehow found each other through the old man’s hints and teachings.

  Before I met them I had always thought I was the only one he had deigned to teach in generations if not ever. But my pride must have blinded me into thinking that Master Pretiosus would put all his hopes and the hopes of the lower mortal realm on me. A dangerous hubris I now realise, but I am still young and always learning, and thankfully I do not forget lessons I’ve been taught.

  We each look at each other after passing back into Gaia, each of us from different backgrounds, different peoples, different
worlds. But connected for being the five disciplines of The Ancient of Days that Ascended, and only known beings to Descend back to Gaia.

  The only mortals on this side of the realm that know of the beauty and horror that awaits beyond the Gates. Who know that what is known as absolute power here is nothing but the tip of the iceberg to what’s possible.

  We take a few steps and bow to the great dragon of the west Eragon, looking at us curiously. Dragons also don’t forget and now we know why Master Pretiosus insisted we Ascend through this gate all those years ago.

  The dragon acknowledges us with a huff and places its head back down on its paws. I look at my four companions again, we nod to each other. Acknowledging the great work before us, the work of trying to prepare these worlds for what’s coming.

  Worlds that are sandboxes filled with children for the arrival of adults with their tyranny and absolute power. I am the least of the five, being the youngest at just over 200 years old. And being the last to Ascend at something like 50 years local time, 5 years Omega time.

  We send our goodbyes and well wishes to each other silently before flying off in different directions for we have different objectives.

  Mandala is to prepare Terra for the coming invasion. He being the only one amongst us to be from that particular world. How he does that is under his discretion.

  Calypto going to Aqueous to prepare that world for the coming invasion. Knowing her personality, she will probably step on everyone that challenges her under heel violently to make her point.

  Calypto and her sister Kalypsō are creatures of two worlds. Their father from Ciel, also known as sky world, and their mother from Aqueous, also known as the water world.

  Thus, as Calypto goes to Aqueous, Kalypsō goes to Ciel. Both sisters beautiful and loving, by quick to anger and devastating in their vengeance. Surviving in Omega by virtue of their flawless team work their first year of Ascending.

  Having spent something like 22 years there, which is 220 years on these worlds revolving around Rigel the blue sun.

  Hirohito, the most mysterious amongst us. Clearly human so obviously from Gaia, the same world as me, but besides his name and that he was once a disciple of Master Pretiosus, whom he refers to simple as The Ancient One. I know very little.