My body stiffens momentarily in shock, as Elan'fer'sha's arms slip around my neck, and she clings tightly to me. When I wrap my arms around her, she holds on tighter, without saying anything. For a long time, I stare at the the now empty battlements, while silent tears fall on my neck and shoulder.
Boran Second Father
*** Gor'achen Citadel - Battleground of the Damned ***
Return: Day 294
“Is my test over?”
Thrall stares at me for a moment. This is the first time he has been back to the Blood Rose Stable, since his announcement, and the first thing out of my mouth is a question about something that I should be unaware of.
“You talked with Boran.”
I shrug.
“Things went quite a bit awry from what was expected. Boran was satisfied with the results, but I do not know when he will contact you.”
“You want to explain what the fuck happened?”
Thrall frowns. “I am Transcendent and do not worry about the actions of most mortals. For too long, I did not pay enough attention to the course of events. Apparently, Aluras'bektsh'tar and Canth are Dragon cultists. They had been secretly manipulating the Stoics. I knew the Stoics were staging a rebellions, but if the clans did not pay attention to it, I had no intention of warning them. What I should have paid attention to was their religion. The Stoics appeared to be worshiping Yggr, but their real loyalty was to Woden. Most of the common Stoics seem unaware that they were really worshiping Woden, but that does not make it any less significant.
“Woden and Yggr are twins, and the Stoics leaders used their almost identical appearance and carefully worded prayers and sermons to disguise it as worship of Yggr. The Citadel Lords and the Priest-Lords of the Church of the Jotun Lords discounted them as weaklings that were trying to undermine their culture because they lacked the strength to rise. Only the Left Hand of Yggr seemed to watch them, but for unknown reasons did not act until too late. Now, there will be purges across the Atran'ler Empire.
“After Yggr demanded I act as his go between with Boran, I paid even less attention to events in Gor'achen. I never thought that Aluras'bektsh'tar would learn about Elan'fer'sha's clan being the source of her clan's destruction. There should have no source for that information. Her daring to move against one of my minions would be unbelievable, if she were not a Dragon cultist.”
“What's the big deal about her being a Dragon cultist, other than the Jotun's egos?”
Thrall laughs. “The Dragons have no foothold in the Labyrinth of Yggr. Even though a few of them are here, they are younger and weaker ones, that have no place in the Dragon hierarchies. You may or may not have heard legends about the Jotun-Dragon War, but the Jotun's overthrew the Umbral Dragons as the gods of most of the DokkAlfar. Being accused of being a Dragon cultist is a death sentence, if you lack the power and position to fight off the Church of the Jotun Lords.
“In the past thousand years, there have been hundreds of Lines of Provenance that have been exterminated because they were thought to be Dragon cultists, the Bektsh'tar line among them. Aluras was thought to have never been inculcated and Canth made his reputation fighting on the Jotun side in the Jotun-Dragon War. Clan Vardne'tar taking him on was assumed to have been a move by Aluras' father to obfuscate his Dragon cultist loyalties. When or how he became a Dragon cultist may never be known, but it is helping to foment a new wave of paranoia over Dragon cultists in the Atran'ler Empire.”
“What about the SvartAlfar? Who is Kah Lee?”
Thrall frowns, and a glint of anger appears in his eyes. “The SvartAlfar has left Gor'achen. Kah Lee is the self-proclaimed Mistress of Murder. She is one of those who calls herself a goddess.”
“I'm leaving too many enemies alive.”
Thrall smiles and walks over to the mirror, then looks at me with narrowed eyes.
“Twisting the three parts of the Trinity, that is a trick I never expected you to master. Most who try it burn themselves out, before doing it properly. If you keep using your Power in that manner, it will help to open all of your Power reservoirs and channels equally. Still, I am surprised you mastered my mirror so quickly.”
“I fucked up; someone gave me a lot of help.” Unlike Boran, I do not feel comfortable talking about Life with Thrall.
Thrall just watches me for a moment, when I do not elaborate.
“No matter, you can have the mirror, along with this place. I have taken possession of the Lord's Castle and can build a better mirror. If you do not accept Boran's request, I could use you in the war against Woden.”
Thrall never really answered my question, and he seems to have no intentions on elaborating on the partial answers he gave. I know as well as anyone that everyone has secrets they do not want to talk about.
*** Gor'achen Citadel - Battleground of the Damned ***
Return: Day 301
Three swords, one nothing more than a lump of metal with a shattered pattern, and an axe lay on the workbench in front of me. Neither my swords not my axe have been Patterned, and I am not sure how I want to Pattern them. My knowledge is still far too lacking, so my options are extremely limited.
Power flares in the room behind me. As I spin around, I see space slit, and another scene become visible in the rift. Compared with my Smithy, the rough hewn cavern is only dimly lit by the flickering ruddy light of a forge. Standing midway between the rift and the forge, Boran looks at me with a faint smile.
“Bring your weapons.” Boran's words are in English.
I stare at him, unable to keep the shock off my face. “When did you learn English?”
Boran chuckles softly. “English as you call it is a common language on Gaean Worlds like your Earth. There are around seven hundred common variations.”
Stepping through Boran's rift, I feel the Od filling the cave. Its concentration is so high that I am not sure a being could survive her without at least being recognized by the Od.
With the exception of the area around the forge, the cave itself is mostly natural. In the section of the cave where the floor has been leveled, a Smithy has been constructed. There are even stronger concentrations of Power around in the Smithy than the rest of the cave, but I cannot identify the nature of those Powers. From their extremely heavy feel, they might be Elemental.
“Leave them on the table for now and take a seat.” Boran points to a workbench in the Smithy.
Leaving my weapon on the workbench, I sit down on one of the two stool in the Smithy, and Boran takes the other.
“What is a Gaean World?”
“Gaea was the first world in the first universe. Its geographical pattern is repeated time and again throughout the first metaverse and the second metaverse. I already told you this is the second metaverse, did I not?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“The first metaverse was created by Life and Death. Before the existence of Life and Death, there was nothing but the Four Primal Powers: Light, Dark, Law, Chaos. How long the Primals have existed is impossible to know; time has no meaning within the Primals. Whether or not the Primals are sentient, no one knows. Each of the Primals exists solely for the purpose of making everything of itself.
“Before the first metaverse existed, Life and Death came into existence, because they chose to exist. At the point all four Primals meet, Life and Death were born. Siblings, lovers, allies, enemies, They are eternally tied one to the other and eternally opposed to one another.
“After Life and Death came into existence, They created the Five Great Elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit. With creation of the Five Great Elements, other Powers came into being that were Elemental in their strength. Each was sentient and was a NAME.”
The meaning and Power contained the word Name, as said by Boran, nearly blasts me into unconsciousness. As I sway on my stool, Boran frowns.
“Your strength is still far too weak. Names have Power. When one understand the reality of a Name and can properly say it, one can bring about the Power
of that Name. The Names of the first metaverse were the very embodiment of their own Power, and each has purpose based on their own Name.
“The monolithic Power contained within the Five Great Elements allowed them resist being destroyed by the Primals, and within the shield of the Five Great Elements, Life and Death amalgamated the first two universes. Each universe was a mirror and an inverse of the other, one living and the other dead.
“Over an incalculable period of time universes beyond count naturally amalgamated, and the first metaverse became filled with well nigh infinite lives. But everything that is born must someday die. Born from Life, claimed by Death, given to Life and reborn, this is the eternal cycle of Life and Death.
“During the birth of the myriad universes, Life gave birth to the children sired by Death. The first of the Dragons were born, True Dragons, not the little wyrms of this multiverse that call themselves Dragons. The Dragons were Elemental beings with strength to challenge the weaker Names, and they set out to conquer all of the Amalgamate universes.
“Unsatisfied with the weak races that worshiped them, the Dragons wanted a stronger race to serve them as soldier-slaves. In his flesh shaping labs, the Dragon Nidhoggr, one of the firstborn of Life, created a new race. Though their form was partly made of Amalgamate flesh, these were creatures birthed of Elemental Earth and Elemental Fire. Initially they created only five, Lemur, Boran, Korak, Vein, and Viroka. From the blood of the Fathers, the Dvergar race was born in the flesh cauldrons of Nidhoggr, but Nidhoggr, being jealous of his technology and not wishing to spend his days making soldiers, was unhappy.
“The Dvergar were the perfect soldier-slaves in the eyes of Nidhoggr, but they needed to be self-perpetuating, so he created the Valkyrie. Creatures of Elemental Air and Elemental Water partially in the form of Amalgamate flesh, the Valkyrie were made in a female form to complement the male form of the Dvergar. Two completely unique races, Nidhoggr made it so they could mate and produce offspring.
“Millions of years after the Dvergar were created, the Dragons were bored with ruling their empires Nidhoggr created the Alfar to be their factors and administrators. The Alfar were given the title of Whip-Masters by the Dragons and given power over all the Dragons domains and properties as their proxies.
“Billions of years after the creation of the Dvergar, and possibly trillions of years after the births of the first Dragons, a group of Dragons left the first metaverse. In their dimensional battle fortresses, with legions of their slaves in tow, they entered the sea of Dark, beyond the first metaverse. An unknown amount of time passed while the Dragons fleet wandered lost within the Dark, until finally this, the second metaverse, was found.
“In the beginning, it was not known that this was a new metaverse. The Power of Life and Death were present, but the Dragons were never able to find the first universe, where their original home, Gaea, lay. Only after billions of years, when they encountered the Avatars of Life and Death, did they finally understand that this was new metaverse.
“As the children born of Life's womb, the Dragons tried to assert supremacy over what they saw as mere Avatars and were mercilessly beaten by Death. Pretending to capitulate, the Dragon left their holdings in this metaverse in the hands of their Alfar Whip-Masters and spent all their time and efforts seeking more Power.
“The Alfar were vain and jealous, much like the Dragons themselves, but unlike most Dragons, they were petty. They used their position to oppress and crush everything else beneath their feet. Bound by the collars made by the Dragons themselves, Dvergar and Valkyries became their playthings and generation upon generation were squandered in wars fought for purposes no greater than entertainments or bets among the Alfar. Many more were murdered and tortured for nothing other than the Alfar's pleasure.
“The Power that the Dragons eventually found was Primal. They gave themselves to Light and Dark. In the first metaverse, Life and Death forbade any and all beings from using Primal Power, but in this metaverse, the Dragons thought themselves above the whims of the mere Avatars of Life and Death. They tried to control Primal Power and became corrupted by it. Nothing of the metaverses of Life and Death can use Primal Power without being corrupted.
“Death came to the Dvergar and gave us the choice to fight against our creators or be destroyed along with them. Boran Second Father, the only one of the Five Fathers with the Dragon's fleet when it left the first metaverse, chose to fight. His heart and soul were filled with rage over the treatment that the Dragons allowed the Alfar to subject his children to. He felt betrayed by those whom he had served loyally for hundreds of billions or perhaps trillions of years.
“Death shattered the collars on the Dvergar and Valkyries, and they rose up against their creators. They destroyed the technology and tools of the Alfar, nearly exterminating the race. They slaughtered the little wyrms, the orcs, the goblins, the trolls, and all the other biological weapon systems of their creators, the Dragons. They killed every living Dragon they could find, and Boran Second Father slew Nidhoggr, the only thing akin to a father he had ever known, with Harbinger, the axe of the Avatar of Death himself.
“In the wake of the War of Slaughter, the Dvergar and Valkyries put aside their weapons and tools created with the Dragon's technology. All that was not destroyed was sealed in pocket dimensional Heritage Vaults, never to be touched from then to now. Only lesser weapons and armors were kept in clan vaults to be used a handful of times from then till now.” Boran pauses and watches me for a time.
In the Battleground of the Damned, there are too many stories about the Dvergar, making it hard to know what is true and what is false. Because there are only unsubstantiated claims of beings seeing female Dvergar, there are more than enough rumors about Dvergar proclivities. I have heard rumors about Dvergar and Valkyries, but like most everyone else, I never considered them to be more than flights of fancy. After all, Valkyries are nothing but legends in the Battleground. Other than odd comments that made little sense, Thorrin used to always change the subject, whenever anyone tried to question him about the Dvergar. I wonder how much of what Boran just told me he knows?
“So is Boran a common Dvergar name?”
Boran laughs so hard he almost double over. Was the question really that funny?
“There are five names that have never been borne by more than one Dvergar each: Lemur, Boran, Korak, Vein, and Viroka.”
Okay. Right. I do not know if Boran is sane or not. I do not know if I am sane or not, since I have the feeling that he is telling me the absolute truth.
“The thing I don't understand is, if the Dragon's made Dvergar so powerful, why are the Dvergar in the Battleground generally so weak now?”
Boran stares at the ground with a frown. “The Dvergar born now are not like the Dvergar of old. At best, they are Fallen Dvergar. Their DNA has deteriorated and is no longer Elemental. Like you humans, my descendants have become Amalgamate beings.”
“Thrall doesn't know much about this does he?”
Boran frowns. “Only because you are chosen by the Od and acknowledged by Life, did I tell you this. I prefer you not to speak of what I have told you. I can prevent you from repeating it, by using Power to constrain you, but I will not.
“I won't speak of it. But I don't understand why you told me all this. What do you want from me?”
“This Labyrinth of Yggr is not something that was created by Yggr or any of his Divine Tribes members. They are barely more than ignorant barbarians, just like your own people. As I once told you, this a Dragon battle fortress. This is Yggdrasil, the dimensional battle fortress of Nidhoggr, that I had thought destroyed in the War of Slaughter.”
Boran holds up his had, and an image appears in the air over it, the image of a cube covered with what look like spell formations. It is a cube that I have already seen. In the base where Taereun: Battleground of the Damned was being run by The Nameless God Entertainment, Inc., I saw that cube.
“I saw that on Earth. What is it?”
Boran's smile is predatory. “That is Yggdrasil's primary dimensional drive. That is what allowed Woden to draw your Earth's solar system into the Battleground of the Damned. I want you to retrieve it for me.”
Fuck me. I may not feel fear the way normal people do, but I still feel a chill in my soul listening to Boran's words. As completely improbable as his story may be, inside the Labyrinth of Yggr, no, inside Yggdrasil, I have seen enough of Power to believe him. What I have felt in the Od, the overwhelming reality of Life, those go far beyond the already mind-blowing levels I have seen used by casters with just mana. Now, he wants me to go against Woden, or The Nameless, or whatever the fuck he wants to call himself.
I came back here with the intention of fucking The Nameless over and killing him, if I could, but I planned to acquire Power before doing so.
“Gods may be myths, but Woden is so fucking powerful, I won't have a chance in hell against him.”
“Yes, he is powerful, but he is also limited. In this metaverse, there were no Names. For whatever reason, the Elemental realms came into existence, but no sentience ever manifested within them. After becoming Transcendents, the ones who call themselves gods have a followed a path that allowed them to take on aspects and become similar to Names. They are False Names, and many can have the Power and aspect of the same Name. There are False Names that are so alien to your human form and nature you would not even be able to recognize them as life, but there are none among them that concern themselves with this multiverse.
“Once a False Name is born, a realm coalesces around it. Within that realm, they keep their original body, effectively becoming unkillable outside of that realm. Outside of their realms, False Names can only operate through projections and avatars. Only by creating Avatars can they use the majority of their Power outside their personal realm, but that leave them vulnerable to suffering significant damage, if the avatar is destroyed. Yggr and Woden are two of those who became False Names, and after the Jotun-Dragon, neither uses avatars any longer. The projections that Woden uses are severely limited in their Power, and if you use the Od, you can contend with one.”
Slave Pits of the Tyrannical God (Path of Transcendence Book 2) Page 38
