Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset

by James Osiris Baldwin

  “That’s why Myszno looks like a big hole in the ground.” I said, thinking back.

  The shade turned to face me, her shadowy hair twining around her slender body. Even with her features obscured by the rippling umbra, she was unearthly. "In the great gaping socket left by the raising of Hava Sahasi, I mourned all I had lost and all there was to lose. For my lover, the God of Darkness and Life, was next to be entombed. I climbed the steps with him. I held him by the throat and drowned him in his sarcophagus, holding him under the black waters of the Gate of Endless Night. In the stories, it is Matir who weeps and rages for the death of Lahati. In truth, it is Lahati who wept for Matir. It was she who raised flaming mountains with her magic as she flew over the ruin of her world, alone. Inconsolable. In the end, I begged the Triad to entomb me as they had my mate. To bring me mercy, to build a mirror of Matir’s tomb so that we might gaze at one another from across the land where we had flown and loved and hunted. As my hearts broke, I ordered them with my dying breath to spread the word that this place, where you now stand, is the Gate of Endless Night. I ordered it so that those seeking Matir’s Gate might be misdirected.”

  [You have discovered a new location: Lahati’s Tomb.] Even my HUD narrator sounded solemn.

  “I see.” I massaged my cheeks, sniffing as heat gathered in my face. I wasn’t going to cry over a game, dammit. "I... I don't understand why I’m here. What's a Paragon? What's the Triad?"

  "The Starborn Triad are the guardians of the Dragon Gates and the Caul of Souls." The shade began to drift toward me. "It is formed of three aspects and six individuals. The first aspect is that of the Paragon, the symbiosis of a Queen dragon and her Bonded rider. The Paragon is charged to bear the burden of the Spear of Nine Spheres, the key to each of the Dragon Gates. The burden of the Spear is too great for any mind to bear alone, and so the Paragon is not one being, but two united as one."

  She reached out and beckoned. On instinct, I held out the Spear. The shadowy fingers caressed the haft, chilling it.

  "The Artist is also a dual aspect: a pair of bonded Artificers. The first Artists were Aesari… it is they who created the Gates, who forged the Spear, and built the Warsingers. They are the traditional keepers of the blueprints to the dungeons which protect each Gate." Her voice was soft and sad now. "The third aspect is the mantle of the Warsinger. It was the Warsingers who turned the tide against the Drachan and bought us the time to create the Caul. Each of the ten Warsingers contains the malevolent spirit of an Elder Drachan, who is bound by the blood of the pilot. They must be a warrior of great courage with a will beyond measure. They protect the Paragon and the Artist in their endeavors and rally the world against evil, for they are a truly awe-inspiring presence. You have met one of the machines already… Nocturne Lament, the first Warsinger. The smallest and weakest.”

  “That thing was small and weak?” I stifled a small sob.

  “Compared to the others? To Killing Frost, Withering Rose, Black Mercy? By far.” She bowed her head. “Nocturne Lament was set to guard the Sepulcher of Heroes, the tomb where my slain warriors were laid to rest. My restless return from death must have awakened it. As you discovered, the Sepulcher has a secret portal to this place. We are no longer near Krivan Pass, as you might have gathered. We are far, far to the north.”

  Frowning, I nodded. “Right. But to be honest with you, I really don’t know if I’m a Paragon of anything.”

  Lahati regarded me with the poise of a dragon in human form: her neck long and graceful, her head held high. “I sensed your desire, your nature and your purpose from the moment you came to incarnate here, Starborn. The wheel has turned, and the Triad is needed. You are the Paragon of the current age, Dragozin Hector… you and your Queen."

  "...Of the current age?"

  "There have been five Triads throughout Archemi's history," the shade said softly. "You already know of one of them. Sachara Ha'Shazir the Demon Queen, pilot of the Warsinger, Withering Rose and Empress of the Shalid. Her Artists were Phaedra and Zarya, rightly regarded as the finest Artificers in the history of the Mercurions. And the Paragon… you have heard of him, I suspect. He was none other than Grigori Skyrr, an escaped slave and the first human to ascend to the position of Paragon. He Bonded with Lirenian the Diamond Queen, the Breaker of Chains, who helped him emancipate humans from their Aesari masters. She was my great-granddaughter."

  "Lirenian was your descendant? That means my dragon is related to you. Her mother is-"

  "Usta the Dawn Pearl… the Queen of Tears. One of only three Queens of my blood left in this world, including your own Karalti." The shade stepped back, her form whispering and hissing, and then sunk into the floor and vanished. "I know... I know Usta’s fate all too well. My spirit has watched over all my descendants, every queen and every daughter and son they have borne."

  The floor brightened beneath my feet, and when I looked down, my eyes widened. It wasn’t stone at all – it was glass.

  Lahati the Chrysanthemum Queen was perfectly preserved, like a fly in amber. She looked as if she was sleeping, her foreclaws curled against her muzzle, her long hind legs drawn up, one wing half-covering her face. Her scales were a pure, glossy black, save for a large white starburst at the base of her long, swan-like neck. Seven magnificent horns decorated with jeweled platinum and gold rings swept back from a long, elegant skull. Even in death, Lahati the Chrysanthemum Queen was regal, graceful... beautiful.

  “The Triad returns to the world when the gods stir in their tombs,” Lahati’s voice whispered from all directions around me. “And as Matir has awoken from his restless sleep, so have I. That is not a good thing, Herald. That we are roused means that the Caul's magic has lessened. There is only one way that could have happened. The Drachan have found themselves an Avatar."

  "They have." I drew a deep, steadying breath, unequipped my cleated boots, and walked out into the chamber in bare feet. It was about three hundred feet around, larger than the Warsinger. Lahati almost filled the entire space below. "One of the Architects has incarnated here. He was known as Ororgael, and now as Baldr. Baldr Hyland. He wants to rule an empire."

  "And the Drachan will give it to him. That is how they earned their name in my tongue, ‘Trauvin’. The Deceivers." Lahati said. "The Trauvin weave falsehoods as easily as breathing, layering deception upon deception. In truth, they only have one desire - to consume. They are neither alive nor dead, but un-alive; life is an affront to their very existence. They will gladly hand this Baldr Hyland his empire, and when the world has no protection left, they will slowly devour him and his works. For it is his suffering they shall relish the most.”

  "He’s an Architect, though." I asked. “He helped create the Drachan, along with everything else.”

  Lahati sighed: a soft, fluted sound. "The Drachan have exceeded the Architect’s designs in ways they could not imagine or predict. But I cannot dwell on it… ask other questions of me."

  I crouched down, gazing at the entombed dragon's face. Up close, I could see that her muzzle was sunken and atrophied, but it only made her beauty more haunting. "Myszno is being invaded, your Majesty. By-"

  "Ashur of the Ten Thousand Swords." She breathed the word like a curse.

  "You know him?"

  "The land speaks his name. He was Lirenian’s bane." Lahati replied. “But he is even older than she. Ashur was a contemporary of mine.”

  “He’s that old?” I pressed a hand to the smooth floor. “Why would he be here after all this time?”

  “His story is bound with the history of humankind in Archemi,” she said. “The Shalid used to be a great jungle ruled by the Meewfolk. But when the Drachan came, they turned the vibrant queendoms of the Meewfolk into a desert wasteland with their magic and artificing. They enslaved the catfolk alongside the humans they had brought with them from another world, and fielded terrible machines that sucked mana from the bodies of their screaming thralls. As the War plowed on, many slaves escaped their clutches, founding nations in the
high mountains of Tungaant in Daun and the abandoned deserts of the Shalid here, in Artana. The first and the mightiest human civilization was the enlightened kingdom of Napath. They seized and held one of the few green places in the Shalid, nursing their civilization along the Iteru River delta. They were able to bring together the quickness of humans, the wisdom of the dragons, the ambition of the Aesari, the diligence of the Mercurions and the honor of the Meewfolk into a single nation. The Napathu commanded words of healing and restoration, the only humans to ever have done so. They were truly great, our neighbors and friends.”

  “But…?”

  “But when the Dragon Gates were built, Paragon, the burden of their creation was great upon the world. The Gates which were to become the tombs of Veles and Matir were made here, in Hava Sahasi. Veles consumed the mana of the Great Wellspring and took it with him when the Gate rose to the stars, and so the mana for the Gate of Endless Night had to come from somewhere. It came from the oceans, the mountains, and inadvertently, the land of Napath.”

  I made a face. “Oh.”

  “My lover's passing drained and warped the land for a thousand miles. Their fertile delta withered and Stranged, turning the rivers to poison. In their desperation, the great Maegi of Napath tried to use their magic to save their land, but the Words of Life were twisted by Matir’s passing from this world. They tried to suck the mana back from the hungry Dragon Gate, but their magic sucked the life from them instead. It Stranged them into undead abominations. The Maegi perished, then rose as wights, liches and vampires, becoming the Breathless. They renounced the Nine and spat on their memory, and they have never forgiven the dragons for our role in the creation of the Gates. Rather than move on from their tragedy, they perpetuate it… they use the life force of living beings to replenish their mana and continue their wretched unlife. But if the Drachan have an able herald of their own, then surely the Caul is unbalanced. Matir’s gate draws ever more strongly on the land. They cannot maintain the mana they need to exist."

  “And now they’re here. trying to take back what they figure we stole.” I rubbed my face.

  “Yes. Ashur was a hero of his people,” Lahati said. "A human slave who became a mighty warrior, then one of the vampiric guardians of Napath. He is one of the three great Generals who serves the undying Council of the Breathless."

  "He must be here to try and find Matir’s Dragon Gate," I said. "And he’ll apparently wreck the place to do it. He's slaughtering everyone and raising every corpse he makes. Human, animal, all of them."

  "As the Drachan did," she said, sadly. "Those are their very own tactics. How many dead are there?"

  "Probably closing in on sixty or seventy thousand by now. He's using devices that draw life out of the land and turn it into mana."

  "Stardrinkers. They are not enough to fuel an army of fifty thousand." Lahati sounded troubled now. "An army of such a size requires access to a wellspring. But the Great Wellspring here left with Veles. From whence did they come? From the south?"

  “Yeah. They crawled over the southern mountains. The… uhh… hang on...” I checked my quest log, then my map of Myszno when the log didn’t turn up anything. “The Olmus Range?”

  “Ah.” Lahati rustled nervously. “The Olmus… We call them the Harikulade Mountains in the old tongue. That is where my mate makes his rest.”

  “The Dragon Gate is there?” I stood up in alarm, and a rush prickled up along my arms as things I had heard and seen over months came together into a single cohesive picture. "Could the Demon have found Matir already?”

  “It is possible he has found my mate's resting place.”

  I took a step toward her. “So he could be draining the mana from it? Using it to fuel his army?”

  "The Gate channels enough mana, but no... he could not access it. That is not possible. The Spear is with you. Unless..."

  "Unless what?"

  "If what you say is true and the Drachan have an Avatar, they will be seeking Matir and the other Nine, hoping to destroy them while they slumber," Lahati said. "There are three parts to the seal upon the Dragon Gates. The first part is the Triad itself. All six members of the Triad must be present for the Paragons to open the Gate. They must possess both the Spear of Nine Spheres and the Keystone which is bound to the weapon. You possess one of the Keystones, the Ruby which has bonded to your Spear. It locks and unlocks the Dragon Gate of Boundless Strength: the resting place of Khors."

  "Yeah. But I don't have the magic crystal for Matir," I replied.

  "You do not," the dragon said. "But Ashur might. In his hands, it cannot unlock the Dragon Gate, but the Dark Star could still be used to siphon Matir's divine force through the Gate without the need to open it. No Artifact is perfect, no seal is perfect… and Matir is powerless to stop them if they know how to do so."

  "Shit. My bet is that they do. Does that mean they found the Gate?"

  "It is impossible to say." Lahati replied. “With the Dark Star of Endless Night, Matir’s keystone, one would not need to be physically present to draw his energy. Mana in its aetheric form is not bound by distance… it can be called and discharged anywhere. Both the Gate and its keys have powerful misdirection and cloaking magic lain on them, concealing the location of the Gate from those who should not be there. Not even the most powerful maegi to arise from the Age of Aesari or the Age of Humans have ever found them.”

  I set my jaw. “You’re saying that the Keystone can vampirize Matir?”

  “Yes. And such vampirism could be enough to rouse him to nominate a Herald,” she replied. “Should he perish, or should the influx of soul-energy into his Dragon Gate cease, the Caul of Souls could collapse and unleash the Drachan on us all.”

  “Shit. That has to be why the Caul of Souls is so unstable.” My hand clenched around the haft of the Spear of Nine Spheres. “We can't afford another Drachan invasion, especially if what you say is true and they've somehow evolved past the point the Architects had intended. There's only around two thousand Starborn in Archemi."

  Lahati spread her hands. "That is more than what we had during the Great War. Many more. There were only a handful of Starborn in that time."

  That was heartening, at least. But how many of my fellow PCs were psychopaths like Lucien, Baldr, and Violetta? "Even so... if I get this keystone and put it in the Spear, maybe I can stabilize the gate?"

  "Perhaps," Lahati replied. "I apologize, Paragon, but this audience must end soon... my grip on this world grows weak. Ask me what you must while there is time."

  "Two things," I said. "Where is the remaining queen? You said there were three living queens of your bloodline left: Karalti, Usta, and...?"

  "Altan the Golden," Lahati replied. "Whose great, great grandmother took refuge across the ocean, in Tungaant. She and Karalti are the only hope for my bloodline moving forward.”

  "Oh shit." My expression crumpled. "You mean... Karalti's mom is...?"

  "No. Death would be a mercy for Usta. She is not dead, but her mind is no longer of this world," Lahati whispered. "She dwells in other realms now, though her body is still forced to breathe. And breed."

  Her words were like a punch to the gut. I sat back down heavily, cross-legged. "Jesus. What the hell am I going to tell Karalti?"

  "The truth." Lahati straightened, her specter regal even in death. "There is nothing else worth knowing. Karalti is a Queen of my blood. She will find the strength."

  "Maybe." I shook my head. "She never got to meet her mother. She was never able to receive her mantle, and can’t command other dragons."

  The dragon fell silent. I turned to walk away, but then halted as a breeze stirred behind me.

  "When she is ready... bring her to me," Lahati said. "And I will lend her the last of my power. For now, Paragon, you must go back to her. I will assist you."

  Quest Updated: The Queen's Mantle

  You have learned that Karalti's mother is in no fit state to help her daughter attain the Words she needs to manifest into her destin
y as a Queen dragon. When Karalti reaches Level 15, bring her to Lahati.

  I accepted the update. “Okay, well… this is a lot to digest. Thanks for helping us, though.”

  "Do not thank me yet," Lahati replied. "You carry both the burden of the Triad and the burden of the Mark of Matir. Many have tried to live up to one or both roles and failed."

  I looked down at the back of my right hand. "What does it mean? To be the Herald of the Hidden Seed?"

  "In truth... I do not know." Lahati replied. "All I know is that before his sacrifice, the only one who bore Matir's mark was I. He bit me upon the neck in our mating flight, marking me forever. It was a touching gift, but one bound with thorns. Our love came with great sweetness and great loss."

  Shadows swirled around my feet, crawling up my legs. Tense, I hung onto the Spear as they climbed higher, enveloping my limbs, then my torso, then my head. The world turned dark, and then the veil parted and a cold, clammy wind gusted from the front of my face, ripping over my helmet. It smelled of water and damp, rich soil, with a hint of something bitter. I was up very high, standing on a narrow ledge in front of a shaft like the one I'd used to crawl into Lahati's Tomb. A glacial valley and rivers spread out far below, their headwaters springing from the mountains that towered on all sides. The sun was a thin red line on the horizon, while the moon was only just starting to sink.