The Ant-Man of Malfen

by Derek Prior; C. S. Marks

  “In there?”

  “Yes,” said Nils. “In there.”

  Silas furrowed his brow and swayed.“Nah!” he said and then bent double as he threw up.

  Nils saw his opportunity and turned to flee but a heavy hand clapped down on his shoulder.

  “Oh, no,” said the Nameless Dwarf. “You’re not going anywhere. I have a special job for you.”

  No slur? Just a moment ago he’d been as drunk as Silas!

  Then Nils remembered the fight at The Grinning Skull and his heart caught in his throat. He inched around so that he faced the dwarf and looked into his brooding dark eyes. Nameless was stone cold sober.

  “Here,” the dwarf said, shrugging off his pack and handing it to Nils. “Put it on.”

  Nils felt powerless to do anything but obey.

  “And hold this,” said Nameless, passing Nils his axe.

  Nils stooped under the weight. How had the dwarf carried it all this way, never mind fought with it?

  “Pass him your bag,” Nameless said to Silas.

  Silas wiped the vomit from his face with his coat sleeve and made a feeble flick of his fingers.

  “No, s’alright,” he said. “I’ll keep hold of it.”

  “Suit yourself,” said Nameless before shooting Nils a toothy grin.

  “Consider yourself duly employed, laddie.” He sauntered down the steps with Silas groaning and shambling behind.

  “What do you mean?” said Nils struggling to follow. “I ain’t coming with you, and I ain’t carrying all this.”

  Nameless spun, his face hard like chiselled stone. Nils tried to swallow but found he had no spit.

  “Repeat after me,” said the dwarf in an uncompromising tone. “I am a pack mule.”

  Nils shook his head. “No way.”

  Nameless raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

  “I’m a pack mule!” Nils squealed. “I’m a shogging pack mule! Satisfied?”

  “Extremely,” said Nameless turning on his heel and heading out across town towards the shadow of the Farfall Mountains.

  “Wait up,” said Silas looking as green as a week old corpse and stumbling along the cobbled road in pursuit.

  “Come on,” Nameless called over his shoulder. “It’s a perfect day for adventure. Let’s pass through the gauntlet of the mountains and into the promised land. Shog, if the mood doesn’t leave me I’ll run the length and breadth of Qlippoth and have my people home before the suns set.”

  “Right,” muttered Nils under his breath. “Either that or we’ll be torn apart the minute we cross the border.”

  A dark shape slunk out from behind one of the shacks flanking the road.

  Nameless seemed heedless of the danger. He was skipping in his excitement to reach the pass and almost collided with the emerging woman. Silas was jogging in fits and starts to keep up with the dwarf, his breath coming in gasps.

  “Hello,” said Nameless looking suddenly timid and uncertain.

  Nils drew alongside Silas and looked the woman up and down. Swollen breasts, wide hips, and garbed in black leather like the strumpet back at The Grinning Skull. Only this one was short. Extremely short. Dwarfish even.

  “By the tug of my beard—” Nameless rubbed his barren chin. “Are you—?”

  Nils lifted his eyes to her face, half expecting to see whiskers and a moustache.“No,” he said with sudden realisation.

  The dwarf lady’s eyes narrowed; only she wasn’t a dwarf lady. Nils shook his head and clucked his tongue.

  Nameless swung towards him.

  “No? What—?”

  He turned back to the newcomer and then wagged his finger.

  “Ah!” said Nameless. “The woman from the pub!”

  “Ilesa,” said Nils.

  Ilesa gave a lop-sided smile and then blew Nils a derisive kiss.

  “So you’re going then?” she said to Nameless. “Into Qlippoth?”

  “That’s where my path is leading me,” said the dwarf, his voice still straining at the edge of song. “Coming?” He eyed her up and down.

  “Would you like me to?”

  “Oh, please!” groaned Silas. “If this isn’t the most blatant beguilement I’ve ever—”

  Nameless thrust a hand over Silas’ mouth.

  “You certainly possess rare talents,” he said in a voice tinged with bashfulness.

  Ilesa drew herself up to her full height—which was a tad below Nils’s shoulder now.

  “I can track, hunt, and kill,” she said, her hands casually resting on the hilts of her weapons.

  Silas mumbled something beneath Nameless’ hand. It sounded like “Cook and sew?” to Nils but he couldn’t be sure.

  “Only thing is,” said Ilesa, “I don’t come cheap.”

  “No,” said Nameless. “I don’t suppose you do; but I’ve a pouch of gold and a gladdened heart so name your price.”

  Ilesa held out her hand.

  “Five Dupondii now, five more when we get back.”

  Nils scoffed out loud.

  “Done,” said Nameless fishing about in his pocket and slapping the coins in her palm. “On the condition, mind, that you stay just the way you are.”

  “Sorry, it’s time limited,” said Ilesa, “but I’ll do the best I can.”

  “Hmm,” said Nameless. “Can’t say fairer than that.”

  The dwarf’s good mood was starting to get under Nils’s skin. He almost wished they’d get a move on. Surely Qlippoth couldn’t be any worse than this.

  “Welcome aboard,” said Silas in a feeble voice. He proffered his hand to Ilesa and then turned aside to vomit.

  Ilesa wrinkled her nose and sidled up to Nameless.

  “Shall we?” she said, taking his arm.

  Nameless’ grin spread from ear to ear.

  “Indeed we shall.”

  Nameless and Ilesa left Silas doubled over beside the road and skipped towards the looming iron gate that marked the edge of town. It was as if the dwarf had dropped a heavy burden and found a new wellspring of youth.

  Nils shifted the weight of Nameless’ pack on his back and hefted the axe with both hands. He cast a longing look over his shoulder as he trudged after his new companions—not so much at Malfen, with its spew of ugly dwellings, but at the fractured gorges and rocky outcrops; the swathes of green and the distant plains that marked the outermost reaches of Malkuth—the only home he’d ever known.

  Tears streaked his face as he turned to his companions and lumbered after them towards the wastelands of the Cynocephalus’s nightmares.

  GLOSSARY

  ABYSS, the

  The creation of the Demiurgos. A realm of deception, where residents are granted that which they most desire for eternity. The Abyss lies outside of time, and those of its denizens who can reach beyond its boundaries can influence all the times of Aethir and Earth. It is home to the first begotten of the Demiurgos, the Dweller. The Abyss is accessible from Aethir via the gorges that lead down to Gehenna. Hangs over the mouth of the Void like a gaseous spider web.

  AETHIR

  The world created from the Cynocephalus’s dreams, one side (Malkuth) light, the other (Qlippoth) dark and populated with creatures of nightmare.

  AIN

  The Monad; the Source; the Infinitely Concealed; the All-Seeing Eye. Known only as darkness to the light of human wisdom.

  ALBERT

  Assassin from Earth who came to Aethir with Shadrak the Unseen. An accomplished chef and poisoner.

  ARABOTH

  Paradise. The future world. The afterlife in Nousian belief.

  ARCHON, the

  Angel of Nous. Stands between humans and the transcendent Ain. Serves Nous uncompromisingly. Carried an enchanted Sword through the Void—Vade in Pacem. Used it to cut the Cynocephalus from Eingana’s womb.

  ARISTODEUS

  A philosopher, originally from Graecia on Earth. Is known on both the worlds of Earth and Aethir. Led a doomed assault on the Technocrat Sektis Gandaw and subsequentl
y manipulated beings from both worlds in a second attempt to thwart Gandaw’s Great Work of Unweaving.

  ARNOCH

  Mythical lost city of the ancient Dwarf Lords, who were said to have preceded Sektis Gandaw’s creation of the dwarves of Malkuth, and may even have been his inspiration.

  ARX GRAVIS

  ‘The Heavy Citadel.’ A dwarven city carved from the rock within a ravine. Multi-layered, criss-crossed with stone walkways and vast buildings. Doorways of stone that can be passed through by those who have access. Since the shame of the dwarves, brought about by Maldark’s betrayal of the Hybrids, Arx Gravis has been ruled by the conservative Council of Twelve who have a policy of withdrawal from the world above.

  Following the tyranny of the Nameless Dwarf, the survivors of Arx Gravis fled to wastes of Qlippoth.

  BUCK FARGIN

  Leader of the Night Hawks. Father of Nils.

  CARL THE CAT’S CLAW

  Henchman of Shent.

  CYNOCPEHALUS, the

  Dog-headed ape. Son of the Demiurgos and Eingana. Creator of Aethir and the Hybrids. Maker of Gauntlets of Strength, a Shield of Warding, and Armour of Invulnerability, with which he sought to protect himself from his own paranoid delusions upon discovering (with the arrival of the homunculi on Aethir, whom he had not made) that he was not the Primordial Being.

  Challenged by the Jötunn, giants bred by the homunculi to evict him, he gave his gauntlets to Sartis the fire giant who used them to destroy his own kind.

  The Cynocephalus eventually fell into the core of Aethir, his own mind, chased by shadows of his own imagining. The darkest recesses of his mind open up onto his father’s abode, the Abyss. He was tracked down and almost destroyed by the Liche Lord, Otto Blightey, who stole his armour and left the Cynocephalus cowering beneath his Shield of Warding.

  DEACON SHADER

  Former knight of the Templum Elect, the Ipsissimus’s elite force who are sworn to obey without question. Shader was born in Britannia and educated by the philosopher, Aristodeus.

  He was a distinguished veteran of the Battle of Trajinot, leading the charge that broke through Otto Blightey’s undead army and forced them back into Verusia.

  Shader won the Sword of the Archon at a tournament held in Aeterna to find a successor to the previous champion. Reneging his vow of obedience, he fled back to the Abbey of Pardes in Sahul, where he became embroiled in the battle for the Statue of Eingana.

  Shader met the Nameless Dwarf during his first trip to Aethir and later fought alongside him in Verusia.

  DEMIURGOS, the

  The False Architect; The Deceiver; The Ancient of Days. Came through the Void with Eingana and the Archon. Raped his sister, Eingana. Father of the Cynocephalus. Driven to the brink of the Void by the Archon for his crime against Eingana. Sustained himself with the creation of the Abyss. Trapped in the heart of his own creation.

  EINGANA

  Creator Goddess of the Dreamers. Sister of the Archon and the Demiurgos. Takes the form of an enormous snake. Also worshipped as a goddess of death, believed to hold all beings in existence by a thread.

  Dwells in the Dreaming (within the fabric of Aethir, the dreams of her son) and radiates to Earth when the portals are open. Gave birth to the Cynocephalus by the Archon cutting her womb open with the Sword, Vade in Pacem.

  Fled from the Technocrat Sektis Gandaw in the form of a snake. Protected by the Hybrids and the dwarves led by Maldark. Betrayed by Maldark to Sektis Gandaw and was petrified in amber.

  The Statue of Eingana was used by Huntsman to inaugurate the Reckoning.

  GAUNTLETS OF SARTIS, the

  Made by the Cynocephalus to double his own strength, but later given to the fire giant Sartis to enable him to destroy his own race.

  GEHENNA

  Underworld on Aethir that reaches to the core of the world. Accessed through gorges across Malkuth and Qlippoth. Subterranean cities peopled with homunculi give way to the abode of the Dweller and the entrance to the Abyss.

  HUNTSMAN

  Dreamer shaman. Formerly Adoni (‘the Sunset’). Inaugurator of the Reckoning using the power of the Statue of Eingana to unleash the creatures of Qlippoth upon the Earth.

  JANKSON BRAU

  Long-lived mage and unofficial head of the bandit communities outlying Malfen.

  LICHE-LORD’S ARMOUR, the

  Made by the Cynocephalus to ward off all attacks below the head. Utterly invulnerable. Stolen by Otto Blightey, whom it enabled to walk through the Black River of the Abyss.

  LUDO, Adeptus

  Nousian cleric and a former tutor of Deacon Shader.

  MAGWITCH THE MEDDLER

  A mad magician from New Jerusalem. Magwitch ekes out a living supplying magical security systems and inventing contraptions from scraps of Scarolite he scavenged from the Perfect Peak after the fall of Sektis Gandaw.

  MALDARK THE FALLEN

  Dwarf of Aethir. Marshall of the Guardians of Eingana—renegade dwarves who rejected their creator, Sektis Gandaw, and elected to serve the Hybrids.

  Maldark betrayed the Hybrids and delivered the Statue to Sektis Gandaw, having believed his lies about the Hybrids being creatures of the Demiurgos. Realising his mistake, Maldark led the Guardians of Eingana against Gandaw but they were wiped out. At the instant of the Reckoning, Maldark was propelled through a portal to Earth where he sailed the seas in despair until he was called once more to the protection of Eingana.

  NEW JERUSALEM

  Vast city; the capital of Malkuth on Aethir and once considered the last bastion of the free against the rule of Sektis Gandaw.

  The city’s impenetrable Cyclopean Walls were a penance and parting gift of the dwarves following their betrayal of Eingana and the whole of creation.

  New Jerusalem is presided over by an elected Senate and fashions itself to a great extent on the mythical past of Aeterna on Earth.

  NIGHT HAWKS, the

  Guild of rogues in New Jerusalem. Formerly headed by Shadrak the Unseen, but now under the leadership of Buck Fargin.

  NOUS

  First male Aeon. Logos, reason, clear thinking, truth. Deity from beyond the Void. Distantly remembered by humans and still worshipped by the Templum under the Patriarchate of the Ipsissimus. Individual worshippers are known as Nousians. Served by the Archon. Symbolised by an Endless Knot, said to contain all the mysteries of Creation—all eminently reasonable, but beyond human ability to unravel in their entirety. Wisdom only comes through the Sword of Faith, which cuts the infinite knot.

  OTTO BLIGHTEY

  Also known as The Liche Lord of Verusia. First of the Nousians. Once a contemplative in the Old Religion at the time of the Ancients, roughly equating to our middle ages, Blightey had a succession of dark visions (having penetrated the veil between Earth and Aethir through the austerity of his devotion and contemplation). The dreams showed him ways to draw upon the magic that spilled forth from Aethir’s dark side, and whispering voices promised him great power and eternal life. He had heard the voice of the Dweller, the first begotten of the Demiurgos.

  Blightey prolonged his life at the expense of others—initially tentatively, leaching on their psychic energies, but finding his needs ever greater until he needed their deaths. He left the Old Religion to pursue his hunger—both for lives and for wisdom. He discovered much of the nature of things through alchemy and later science. He also discovered something of the ontological secrets of the cosmos and became aware of the truth of Nous. His shame at what he had become, however, caused him to retreat from Nous.

  Due to his wisdom, he became the most respected thinker in the Templum that emerged from the ashes of the Old Religion in the aftermath of the Reckoning. He brought in elements from other religions and esoteric traditions, claiming the Old Religion had perished because it was false.

  Although the Templum still sought the truth of Nous, Blightey’s amendments obscured the perennial wisdom beneath layers of obfuscation. The Templum, under the guidance of the Archon, stuck
with Blightey’s reforms as they were seen as a strengthening of a once weak religion, with elements of popular appeal and a ladder of grades for the more ambitious. The Archon felt this would lead more people to Nous and strengthen his base in the worlds.

  Betraying the trust the Templum held in him, Blightey murdered the Ipsissimus and the Champion of the Sword of the Archon. Taking the Ipsissimal Monas and the Sword, he used their combined power to render his skull impervious to attack, but before he could do the same for his body, he was captured and burned at the stake. The skull had learnt to suck the souls from the living, and so it was locked in a casket made from Scarolite that the Archon brought from Aethir. The casket was taken to Aethir and cast into Gehenna, falling into the Abyss.

  Blightey escaped from the casket and searched out the Cynocephalus. Threatening to drink the Cynocephalus’s soul, Blightey forced him to find a body for his skull from the dead of the Abyss. He then stole the Cynocephalus’s armour and waded through the Black River to the heart of the Abyss.

  Hundreds of years passed, during which Blightey whispered dark secrets from the Abyss to an Old World scientist called Sektis Gandaw. Gandaw, with the help of homunculi from Aethir, constructed the Gate of Worlds in Earth’s Great West and used it to bring Blightey through. Gandaw, however, did not remain subservient, having grown beyond superstition and magic. He rebelled against Blightey and used technology to drive him into the forests of Verusia.

  Blightey built a community based on Collectivism and styled himself First among Equals, the Prior of Wolfmalen. He maintained his docile community by occasionally culling the more free-thinking with unimaginable torture and impaling. He had no ambition beyond perdurance—it is no longer his time. To this end, he kept a collection of headless bodies to which the skull could attach itself. He used disguises to weed out enemies and to ensnare new victims.