Gravetower

by Kell Inkston

  “You don’t think she-”

  “That’s exactly what I think. Somehow she’s using Ethermancy, and then she… got a non-existent version of the records.”

  She coughs nervously. “So a tadpole like her… knows?”

  “About all the lower ones, yes; but even of the higher ones like ours— of the mountain, of Rondi, her knights— the entire thing is open to her. She doesn’t know now, I don’t think— but at the moment, I’m afraid she might know more about the situation than we do.”

  Kaie is no longer resting her head, but is stooping slowly back into the cushion of her seat. “So… she grabbed the narrative, of herself, and now has become aware of the entire narrative.”

  “Yes.”

  “– though one of your logs.”

  “Precisely.”

  She takes a deep breath. “Wow, you’d get pretty… messed up, if Lady Magistrate were to find out… how the hell did a tadpole get such a high-strand version of the logs that she could use them as a guide? That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “As the person in question is in the books, whenever she read an account, it heavily shifted the causality levels of the very objects she was reading. Figuring out Chaos would be summoned half way through the fight with Oa tripled her chance of survival; this made the versions of the book where she survived much more likely, as I would then write the version where she survives.”

  Kaie nods. “That’s some… that’s some real meta shit right there.”

  Kell sighs. “That said— could I be held accountable for this, legally, I mean?”

  “I mean… Unless you like, tossed them out of the causal field, I don’t see how you could be blamed for the logs being viewed— because technically she’s reading a ‘likely version’ of them, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

  “So…” She hums. “The one thing I’d look out for then, is while you’re analyzing this; make sure you don’t somehow help her in the narrative, or pick sides, or anything.”

  Kell scoffs. “Of course not.”

  “You say that, but I’m sure you have some favorites by now, right?”

  “No. I am entirely impartial to the pieces on the chess board. All they are to me are characters in a book.”

  “People usually have favorite characters, though— and any player would prefer a queen to a pawn, don’t you think?”

  Kell taps the chair’s arm rest in thought. “Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, Head Director, I was as excited to see Oa kill all of those people as I was to see Chaos step on it like a bug… by the way, Oa— has he been handled?”

  Kaie chuckles. “I had a talk with Ceron La’Coss today to check up.”

  Kell nods. “Ahh, just a step down from The Old Sleep itself, eh?”

  “Yeah. They have him— were able to grab him before one of Ohkiij’s things. They’re much more worried about Chaos taking Jack’s scythe.”

  Kell nods. “Big day for them I suppose,” he stretches. “Anyway, the report definitely needs to be read by The Lady Magistrate, and I just wanted to make sure that there weren’t any details that would be… inappropriate,” Kell says as he sits up and shakes her hand again as she meets him at height.

  “I think you’re good to go, just think about what I told you.”

  Kell puts his first shoe out the door. “What, with the people in-narrative?”

  “Yeah. If they know what you write, and you change it up— even just a little— any extra description at all… it wouldn’t look good. It would probably become an… upper level incident.”

  “Oh please,” he says with a self-assured tone. “I can’t even decide what I’d want for dinner. There’s no way I’d do that.”

  At that, Kell closes the door behind him back into the bustle of Assignments.

  “I sure hope so, Mister Inkston,” Kaie says with a gentle hint.

  Kell makes his way back upstairs and into his office, musing as he passes Tem, not hearing his greeting. He hadn’t really thought of it until now, but this circumstance forms a circle that really does go both ways. Love bases her moves on what he writes, and he writes what she does.

  He closes his door behind him, and sits behind his desk in his cool, cinnamon-chai scented office.

  Very slowly, he fixes his hands together, and just stares at his desk for a moment.

  Nothing’s really stopping him from reporting a falsehood, which would, in turn, cause the real Meeo to prepare entirely differently. It would be difficult, but this time, Kell sees that he’s more than just an analyst and reporter. He has someone he can communicate through using his analytic logs. He could tell Meeo anything, be it directly or through a fake narrative.

  With the tiniest, slowest movement, almost imperceptible to an onlooker, he nods to himself.

  “I sure hope so too, Kaie,” Kell says, just as he reaches for a fountain pen, snug in his pocket protector.

  - TO BE CONTINUED -

  (Read on for a note from the author and the oh-so-helpful appendix)

  Hello there!

  Allow me to thank you upfront for your continued patronage. It’s people like you that aid me in my continual pursuit of providing the world with excellent stories and the creation of new art and culture for the world to enjoy! Perhaps to you it’s just another weekend read, but to me, it’s life or death, I assure you.

  That said, pat yourself on the back and treat yourself to some tea, as you’ve done me a great service.

  While these stories are always a great pleasure to write, it is true that your purchasing of my fiction allows me greater and greater freedom to create more and better crafts for you in the future. So I’d like to thank you as well for making an investment in your future entertainment, if I could state that in such a bold way. Make no mistake, it’s your continued support that makes all of this possible. Without you I would be an empty shell, as I’m afraid it’s stories that give me my meaning as a creature.

  I am, as ever, in a constant state of awe and honor for your help to me by reading these words.

  Continue reading my messages through these volumes, and it is my guarantee that I will take you to places you have never visited before, usually to your delight and benefit, though occasionally to your horror, I’d expect.

  Oh, yes, and please leave an honest review; I’d be quite amiss to forget that. Each one, positive or negative, is very, very helpful to prospective readers.

  Thank you. I wish all the best to you, your family should you be fortunate enough to have any, and all that you hold dear.

  Kell Inkston

  Head Analyst

  Inklend S.E.E.R. Department

  (P.S. As always I can be reached over email contact at kellr.inkston@gmail.com. Any words are be welcome, but especially the kind sort. If you can catch the time please drop me a line and say hello.)

  Appendix

  Aerna – A large continent on side #4 of planet Earth #13 that takes up roughly seventy percent of the side in its center, Aerna is host to The Western Kingdoms to its West end and Ulteria to its East end. It sports plenteous forest lands, long rolling hills, great plains and canyons, and a great northern region that’s covered in snow year-round. It’s host to all manners of culture and history, and may or may not have an ancient evil sealed within it somewhere north of Whihelmish. Don’t worry about that, though. It has lots of wonderful tourist destinations for your vacationing pleasure!

  Dimension #13 – No one thinks to name their own plane of existence, do they? Turns out the O.E.L. found the realm containing Dimension #13’s so-called “Earth” twelfth among their millennia-long studies, granting it the simple classification of the thirteenth of all dimensions.

  #13 has it’s own planets, solar systems, clusters and galaxies just like most universes, but damn, the magic there is heavy.

  Known point of origin for countless Omniverse-known figures, but particularly Lord Knight General Order, and Overlord Chaos.

  Dragon-kin – T
he full bastardization of a human and dragon, this species was created through a magical union between a human princess and a dragon tyrant before recorded history in Dimension #13. They’re of three varieties, arranged by most-human DNA to least: lesser, higher, and heraldic. Lesser kin, like Overlord Greed, are almost human in stature, and sport a great aptitude for magic in the human way, using things like spells and incantations. Higher dragon-kin, like Knight Law of the R.K.O.K.R., are stoutly built, incredibly strong, and enjoys the structure of humans with the musculature and biological traits of dragons, though they are largely magic-averse. Heraldic have much more dragon and human in their veins, and is largely incapable of common society. They are a secretive fold, hidden about all cracks of Aerna in hiding from humanity, who hunt them to this very day.

  Kanvane – The magical center of the W.K.D.R. and the third most populous of the four kingdoms. Seated between the fairy tea woods to the West, Trench to the South East, and The Swampwoods to the North, Kanvane was a desirable choice for its founder, Allna Wise Eye, who erected her primary wizard’s tower in the spot of the future capitol building: The Great Council.

  Always under continuous construction, the old streets of Low Kanvane have all but faded out into obscurity as layer upon layer of steps are made to accommodate more laboratories, more cute cafes, and more area for Keruz Magic Academy, widely regarded as the very best university of its kind in all existence.

  It’s people are curious, considerate, and very fond of coffee.

  Liefland – The Kingdom hidden in the leaves is more of a city as it sports no towns outside the royalty’s direct demesne and no formal fortifications outside of Liefholn keep, which triples as the capitol building and royal palace.

  It is the final bastion of the unified fairy folk society known through The Omniverse, as poachers, hunters, and admirers mess their shit up constantly at every turn. They are peaceful people who have a great many loves, especially for art and music, though among their myriad races there are ten times as many passions found in their people.

  As it stands, they have an uneasy, but trusting relationship to the W.K.D.R., who has officially stated any contact with fairy folk outside of trade or state business is to be punished severely. It is for these reasons that the birth defect of Algandar’s is so deeply reviled, though bears no threat to those inflicted, and honestly looks quite pretty.

  Lunar House, The Twelfth – A dimension with an undesignated O.E.L. code, as well as no known space gate connection, The Twelfth Lunar House has long been a subject of great mysticism and infamy among The Omniverse community.

  The original, First Lunar House was in fact a simple mansion outside the city Larnsburg of Dimension #3,422,591, where the vampire Lord Clarence Borenstein would lure unsuspecting victims to his abode as guests with the expectation of feeding on their blood and increasing the numbers of his vampire horde.

  It was some thousands of years ago that High Overlord Chaos learned of the existence of this location during one of his standard interrogations of evil-doers he might catch in his self-proclaimed domain of the Western Kingdoms. After an extensive period of research, Chaos located the First Lunar House, which by this time had gained the power comparable to the country that contained it, and he laid waste to the structure along with most of its inhabitants.

  This was the beginning of a reoccurring cat-and-mouse usually taking the form of vampire society founding a new Lunar House somewhere else and well hidden, and Overlord Chaos finding it in the course of a few years. This is exception only to the Fifth Lunar House, in which the Vampire Lord at the time was a bit too philosophical for his own good, and acted to found the Fifth House hysterically-near one of Chaos’ own towers. His words in explanation to the minion that found the house, was that “it was located where you uncouth dogs would least expected it,” which is also the quote on said Lord’s grave marker within Overlord Chaos’ Graveyard for the Especially Memorable or Foolish.

  The Twelfth Lunar House is largely considered the most successful of the “House foundations” since vampires came up with the idea, and has served as an oft-tested, but never overcome bastion of the dark society for many eras. Its current Vampire Master, Overlord Pales, is considered among the house’s inhabitants to be history’s greatest vampire, and a fantastically-charismatic influencer of allies.

  It’s been whispered in the darker corners of the realms that she has help from more than just one’s simple abominations of the night, but in fact in a long-time holder of a pact with something far more sinister.

  Necromancer - Any person or thing that usurps the laws of nature to give life to that which should not have it. Many necromancers are old, cranky, senile men that want to join the Lich club, only to achieve lichdom and get smashed by the nearest paladin to its lair. Other necromancers are edgy teenagers who dye their hair black and then get beaten up for being so weird.

  Neither of which are all that bad.

  The really bad necromancers are those that have their lives prolonged by other necromancers. In the simple act of entrusting their soul, they allow their brethren to create any number of new bodies out of any form they desire.

  Sick of getting old? Just make a new body every twenty years and be done with it!

  The lord of this sect is Oa, ruler of their kind and the first of the necromancers. Only a handful know how old Oa is, and they’re all older than Chaos, who in his own right is pretty damn ancient.

  Oa is a minion “child” of Ohkiij, who is the Master of the Night and God of the demons, the dead, and all that crawls in the dark.

  New Reinen – Situated only kilometers from Ragnivan’s city walls, New Reinen serves as the primary headquarters of R.O.K.O.R. and generally the Aernan Continent’s nerve center when it hits the fan. New Reinen serves as a diplomatically-neutral location for meetings between opposing parties, a training center for recruits, the continent’s third-largest library, a P.O.I. detention center, among many, many other operations.

  Knight Justice is the chief of security, and though everyone makes fun of him, he’s the very best at his job.

  It’s well known for its delicious food carts, its culturally-traditional feeling, and its central garden, where R.K.G. Order is often spotted at a bench next to the hydrangeas doing paperwork.

  Ohkiij – An ancient god of night and death, Ohkiij is now largely forgotten by its ancestral believer’s younger generations, and for the most part is now shrouded in vague mythology and hearsay.

  If one asked about it a long time ago, a likely answer would be that it is a god that is more human than any human can be, and not for the better, either. Some old worshippers believed Ohkiij to be all the souls of the deceased, as an endless, fathomlessly-knowledgeable entity. It’s goals? None can say.

  Often characterized in art as a great, black shape, usually either a circle or a pyramid, and sometimes with a golden eye in the center.

  It’s favorite drink is Scotch.

  Omniverse Expeditionary Librarium A.K.A. “O.E.L.” – The first transdimensional association to spring up in The Omniverse, their stated goal is to catalog every dimension in existence.

  Of course, on the back end, they’re also raiding any society they find for their magical and scientific discoveries, but that’s not really the “appendix appropriate” version.

  Oops.

  Headed by an ancient, mysterious figure named Ywn, they are the military and scientific center of The Omniverse. The only reasons Dimension #13 isn’t fully under their thumb at this very moment are two in number: The Royal Knights, and High Overlord Chaos, neither of which are quite partial to their presence.

  Overlord – A sought-after title among the mighty and the ambitious, overlord is a term used to denote the very highest apex of a community, usually its ruler— not always by right, and with force involved.

  Overlords are many in The Omniverse, as there is not really an authority to decide who or what gets to be an overlord. This has led to certain overlord communities to
form, which for all intents and purposes are basically a bunch of really tough people fighting constantly to figure out who’s on top.

  And to cut things short, when Chaos is around, he’s always on top. For this reason, most of overlord society has placed Chaos on an unspoken “always target” list. He has many, many more enemies than he has friends.

  Ragnivan – Military center of the W.K.D.R. and closest neighbor to the Royal Knight’s headquarters of New Reinen. The most populous of the four in the W.K.D.R., it is a sprawling kingdom of good fields and rolling hills. Ragnivan is home to a spirited people that hold loyalty to a seated nobility that claims to have related heritage to King Rayda. The claims are dubious, but don’t let them catch you saying that.

  Its folk love drama, the arts, martial and otherwise, and sports of all kinds. True go-getters, they’re an enthused people who are always thrilled to try their hand at competition, and have a superior record in the bi-annual Inter-Kingdom Games.

  Rayda – The leader of The Knights of the Reign and the wielder of the quintessential blade: Caliburn. This figure, often argued to be either god or man, crossed the boundary between realms to do battle with the draconic armies. He was laid-back sort of man, speaking little but always being of good company to friend and foe alike. His achievements during his seven thousand year reign are numerous, but most notable would be his deliverance of mankind from the dragon hordes, the foundation of Reinen of the Far North, and his climactic battle with Overlord Apocalypse, though very, very few remember the tale as such; most assume it was Chaos that defeated him.

  Legend has it that in his final breaths, he asked to be rejoined with his sword, Caliburn, which disappeared mysteriously during the turmoil.