“She’s must be the new Chaos Avatar,” Danielle said. “There hasn’t been one for ages.”
“Chaos Avatar?” Eric asked. “Like the earthly ones but for Lady Chaos?”
“Whenever the elven race faces a crisis,” Eagon said, “Lady Chaos will possess a special individual. This person will gain supreme power and squash whatever is threatening us. Annala is clearly next.”
“It’s not just the elven race,” Kallen said. “Lady Chaos has possessed many races. Even an orc has done her will.”
“Well, yeah, but elves are her favorite!” Fergus insisted.
“Elves are the most capable, yes,” Sagart said, “because we are already chaotic in body and mind. That is part of the reason behind our creation and that of our church.”
“Don’t wander off!”
The golden wolf had three elven children in her mouth and was presenting them to Priestess for scolding. It only took those three words to chasten them. Then the wolf placed them on the ground and Priestess hugged them.
“Curiosity is a wonderful thing, but let’s wait until you’re somewhere safe, okay?”
The three of them nodded. Satisfied, Priestess left her familiar to watch them while she completed her next task.
Now that they were far enough away from Latrot, she could safely create a teleportation gate. She held out her right hand and gridlines wrote themselves in the air before her. The square that her right hand rested against further wrote itself into a teleportation rune. It flashed, expanded, and became a stable portal. Her familiar went ahead, herding the three children and their parents to the other side.
“The rest of you, single file.”
The former slaves immediately complied. The raiders brought up the rear. Priestess crossed last and closed the gate from the other side.
They were in a forest. All was dark under its canopy except for a translucent screen of golden-brown light further inside. They passed through the Chaotic Curtain and the raiders breathed a sigh of relief.
“Where’s Cinder?” Eric asked casually.
Priestess’ hood turned to him. “Cinder who?” Her hood tilted. “Is she no more than two?”
Eric stepped over a large root. He offered his hand to the priestess and she accepted his help. Her wolf hopped over it.
“I would guess five or six,” Eric said.
“In that case, we can’t be talking about the same Cinder,” Priestess said. “The only person named ‘Cinder’ that I know is an adult who has become quite the sought after young lady in the Nascan Intergalactic Elven Empire.”
Eric pushed a branch aside. “Is she now?”
“Oh yes,” Priestess continued, ducking under another branch. “She excels in music, math, and mixed martial arts. The last time I saw her, she was working on an institute mastery.”
Eric twirled his staff. “You sound proud.”
Priestess petted her wolf. “I was the girl’s mentor for years. I practically raised her. Of course I’m proud.”
Eric put his staff away. “She must have been young when she came under your tutelage...say five or six?”
Priestess giggled. “Five and a half.”
The ring of tree sentinels came into view, and they moved their branches into a humanoid salute when the heroes passed. Meza and his followers returned it. Dnnac itself shined a spotlight on them as they entered the town itself. The whole village was done up in a celebratory style similar to the festival not a week past. Eric mused that they must have started soon after Meza left on his raid. That was how sure they were that he would succeed.
Their gear was wrecked and they themselves were a mess, but the Ordercrafter Hunters stood tall and proud as they marched through an honor guard of their neighbors. The air was thick with cheers and praise as they made their way to the foot of the Sage Tree.
There Dnnac widened its beam to shine on a raised platform and podium. Headman Jade awaited them there. Meza called a halt and the Ordercrafter Hunters stopped all at once. Then they parted to allow the remaining rescuees to pass. Headman Jade shook hands and introduced himself to each one of them.
“Welcome to Dnnac Ledo. There are rooms prepared for each of you inside Dnnac. You may stay as long as you like.”
Kallen elbowed Eric. “This is how you tell where an elf comes from.”
Elves from Western Isaryu countries shook his hand and said ‘thank you very much.’ Their counterparts from Najica’s continent gave him a big hug. Those from the Poloni continent below the equator kissed him on both cheeks. Then several others pulled down their right eyelid and stuck their tongue out while pulling on their left ear.
“You’re all welcome,” Headman Jade said. He snapped his fingers and fifteen jewelry boxes appeared. “Would you like to help me thank your rescuers?”
The boxes opened to reveal golden medals on brilliant blue strands.
“Headman, with all due respect,” Meza said, “put those away. I do not want them. Do I have to protest every single time?”
Headman Jade magnified his voice to speak to the gathered crowd. “What have I always said in response to such modesty?”
Any further protests were drowned out by the crowd’s cheers and encouragement. It was only with long-suffering patience that Meza consented for the honor to be placed around his neck. Kallen graciously accepted hers, as did Sagart and Priestess. For Eric, it was no question because the Dragon’s Lair rules were clear; “Not all that glitters is gold, so grab what is whenever you can.”
Having awarded these heroes, Headman Jade addressed his people.
“Brothers and sisters, our hero has once again achieved the amazing. With only ten followers, two priestesses, and two demon mercenaries, he marched into Order’s domain and rescued our people. The light of our Lady Chaos revealed to them the path to freedom!” He paused to look around theatrically. “Why, there’s enough to start a new village!”
The people of Dnnac Ledo roared their agreement.
“Let this be a message to Order, and his puppets in phony king ‘Epideus’ and silver-tongued Lunas that their authority is not absolute! Their chains are not unbreakable! There is nothing they can do to any of us that the rest cannot undo. Praise be to Lady Chaos!”
“Praise be to Lady Chaos!” the crowd echoed. “Praise be to Lady Chaos! Praise be to Lady Chaos!”
“What’s more, I hear a Chaos Avatar will soon be born into our world!”
The crowd held its collective breath.
“Yes,” Headman Jade continued, “and not only will this avatar appear, it might be our very own Annala Enaz!” The crowd drowned out anything he tried to say next. When it settled, he spoke again. “At this very moment, she is traveling Noitearc with Grandmother’s blessing; a pilgrimage like no other. The end of Order’s Latrot is nigh!”
Tasio appeared next to Meza and hovered to the headman. All eyes immediately moved to him.
“It’s true. This raid is only the beginning. The day will come when the Grand Obelisk falls and the threat of Ordercraft is expunged from this world!”
Fireworks shrieked into the sky and exploded into images of broken obelisks. This drew wild applause from every elf watching. Suddenly, high-energy music played and they began to dance. Others passed out alcohol potent enough to make an orc dizzy. It only took minutes for the award ceremony to become a second festival. Eric was not part of it.
He didn’t trust strangers passing out drinks in a mortal village, let alone an elven one. As soon as he sensed the mood shifting, he wrapped himself in his Shadow Cloak and snuck away. The elves around him were too busy celebrating to notice one of the heroes disappearing. Just when he thought he escaped cleanly by taking shelter behind a tree, someone tapped his shoulder.
“Not in a party mood?” Kallen asked.
Eric sighed and dismissed his Shadow Cloak. “I did nothing worth celebrating.”
Kallen looked at him with sad eyes. “That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is! Because of my weaknes
s, Annala suffered, and because of my ignorance, she’s traveling Noitearc alone. Excuse me; she’s traveling with a foster kid! I did nothing.”
“That’s not true.”
Kallen didn’t repeat herself. This time, it was Meza. He carried one drink in each of his three hands and passed one to each of the demons. Then he asked Eric, “What do you see?”
“A party,” Eric said. “What do you see?”
Meza scoffed. “Kallen?”
“Happiness,” Kallen replied. “Relief. A community no longer on edge.”
Meza smiled. “Good girl. It’s a pity you’re human; excuse me, chimera.”
He drank from his cup. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Eric Watley, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Being The Trickster’s Choice, I should have given you the benefit of the doubt. Rather, I should have given Annala the benefit of the doubt. She wouldn’t have picked a greedy, self-righteous, sour grapes sort of temp. No, she’d look for someone special.”
“…Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. It’s because you’re a special kind of human – sorry, grendel – that I think you’ll understand what I’m saying. When a human gets into a bad situation, they know it’s not forever. In the worst-case scenario, they can die. Elves don’t have that option. As free as we are, we cannot choose to terminate our own lives and thus we are prisoners of them. If a sufficiently powerful ordercrafter gets us in their clutches, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
He looked out to the former slave elves. They alternated between gorging themselves on Dnnac’s fruit and muttering about “goblin markets.” At least one of them was choking at any given time, and they always refused to spit out the obstructing piece. Instead, they forced themselves to shift a form that could crush, dissolve, or accommodate it. Those that had eaten their fill danced awkwardly, as if unused to such self-expression.
“By reaching into Latrot and taking slaves away, even if it’s only a handful, I can prove to them that such a situation will not happen.” Meza continued without taking his eyes off these elves. “After that Order-Possessed Nulso got in, there has been fear and sorrow in my village. Arin’s Ascension festival mitigated it, but without a permanent solution, it would build up into something nasty.”
He drank a second time.
“Now they have confidence. They know that if they were ever captured, it is not permanent. Meza the Hero, the Trickster’s Chosen, and the Chaotic Clergy can save them.”
He drank a third time and finished his cup. Then suddenly, he dashed it against the ground. “If I had enough power, I would march into Blayce Royal Palace and kill the king himself! Alas, I don’t. Such a mission would be suicide.”
Directly to Kallen, he said, “For you, it might be possible.”
“Me? That would be even more impossible.”
“I don’t think so,” Meza said. “You’re more powerful than you think you are. That River of Chaos enlightenment is truly impressive. I wouldn’t be surprised if Donangelo makes a statue of you for the Chaotic Pantheon.”
Kallen blushed deeply and twiddled her fingers, but Meza wasn’t done yet.
“I recognize what Tasio is doing with you. He’s molding you into a super soldier for Lady Chaos. Soon you will be the ultimate soldier, an Avatar of Chaos.”
At once, Kallen’s head shot up. She was wide-eyed with surprise and parts of her were returning to her chimera form. Her snake tail drifted over her shoulder and stared at him suspiciously. Her main eyes then matched their triangle pupils and narrow rims.
“How do you know about that? I haven’t told anyone and neither has Tasio.”
Meza spread his hands affably.
“It’s not hard to figure out once you have all the pieces. After what my subordinates said about Annala being the one, and then Tasio’s statements, I got to thinking... ‘She’s not the real deal. She’s just the foundation.’ Am I right?”
At this, Kallen struggled with herself. Her head shifted into that of the green goat of the chimera and it was joined by the golden-brown dragon and the silver-grey lion. They spoke gibberish at length before receding. Kallen the human took a deep breath and said, “Yes, you’re right. I will be the Chaos Avatar and Annala will help me do it. I’ve been working towards that goal ever since I crawled out of the slime of Siduban.”
Meza clapped her on the back. “As I thought. There had to be a reason Tasio recommended you for adoption into the village. Ever since the Conversion War, our people have lived in fear of Ordercraft and you are the one who will end that fear.”
“Excuse me,” Eric said. “I don’t like being ignored or left out of the loop. I’m Tasio’s chosen too, as much as I dislike it, and so I want to know what’s going on.”
Meza looked to Kallen. She stiffened. Then she released the tension, but she did not relax. She grabbed Eric’s hand and dragged him away from the celebration.
“We’re going to watch ‘The Tale of the Two Sisters.’ Then you’ll understand everything.”
Inside Remho’s shrine was an auditorium. Its walls and pillars were trees and flowers grew among the seats and eaves. Its seats were rocks and tree stumps shaped into chairs. The curtain rose on a woman with green hair and a mage’s robe.
She walked back and forth in a room of machinery. In the center, one machine rose above all and it was only this machine that glowed with divine light as opposed to merely bearing its color.
An actor portraying Tasio appeared next to the woman. The real deal was sitting with Kallen and Eric, enjoying the show as they were. The actor for the woman feigned surprised at the actor for Tasio’s entrance but then settled down and asked, “Patron of Inventors, are you here to disturb my work or inspire it?”
“Euphemia Selios, I have come to do both. Behold!”
Tasio’s actor pointed at the other’s stomach and she herself made it swell. She tentatively touched it with one hand while her other retained its grip on a wrench.
“Does this mean…?!”
Tasio’s actor nodded as he spoke. “Yes, you are pregnant, and not merely with a child but the future of the world. Wiol has stared into the future and foretells that your daughter is destined for wondrous and terrible things. There is no future where she leads an unremarkable life. All her days shall be spent in interesting times.”
“So my daughter is both blessed and cursed with your attention.”
Tasio’s actor held up two fingers, one on each hand. “Daughters, plural. You shall conceive once more before you die and your second will lead an equally eventful life but to the opposite purpose. She shall deny me, blindfold Wiol, and shackle all she sees. There is no possible future where she accepts me into her heart.”
The actress for Euphemia Selios replied, “Such will be her choice, and hers only. The future changes by the day. What was once impossible becomes the usual.”
“Such talk is why Lady Chaos favors you, Euphemia Selios. May your mind drive relentlessly forward and your heart fire with passion all the days of your life.”
“Thank you and curse you, Patron of Inventors.”
The lights over Euphemia Selios’ actress darkened and she fell into shadow. Remho’s muses advanced to the edge of the stage and recited, “Within two years, Euphemia Selios bore two daughters. The elder was bright and lively; her mother named her ‘Kallen.’ The younger was beautiful and cautious; she received the name ‘Ariel.’ While sprung from the same womb, the contrast in their nature was soon clear.”
The lights over them darkened and they retreated to stage left. Further back, the lights resumed their brightness. Two groups of children played underneath them. An actress for Kallen led the roughhousing, adventuring, and general mischief. An actress for Ariel tried to organize the group, reminded them of their chores, and tattled on them when they broke the rules. Kallen’s actress fired mana bolts at Ariel in anger and Ariel’s actress fearfully blocked them with a barrier.
“Behold! Wiol’s prophecy is coming true!” Tasio’s a
ctor declared. “Euphemia Selios, you have born from your womb a spear for Chaos that will smite her enemies. Your first daughter is powerful and instinctive in the ways of mana. She will travel far and wide. She will deal great pain and be dealt greater pain, but in the end, she will usher in a new age of prosperity and freedom for all the world.”
“Blessed be Lady Chaos for this honor,” Euphemia’s actress said.
“But beware your second daughter, for her future is less certain. She may be a shield that guards the weak and shelters peace against war, but she may also become a shackle that imprisons all. She is powerful, like her sister, but her mind is drawn to Order. The age she ushers in will be peaceful, but whether it is through harmony or oppression is less clear.”
“I love my daughters the same and I will encourage them to choose their own path.”
Tasio’s actor nodded. “Blessed art thou, Euphemia Selios, for you demonstrate the unconditional love of Lady Chaos.”
The lights above them dimmed and the muses stepped forwards once more.
“As the Chaos Distribution Machine developed, so did the sisters. They grew into their natural talents and grew further apart from one another; Kallen the wild child and Ariel the quiet one. As Wiol predicted, Kallen became fascinated with Chaos and continually begged to join her parents’ project, while Ariel became fearful of Chaos and continually begged her parents to stop their project. Thus were their lives until the fateful day arrived.”
The muses vanished and the headlights illuminated the actors.
On this day, Euphemia Selios demonstrated the power of the Chaos Distribution Machine for her daughters: food created from nothing, a house fully built and furnished, enough electricity to light up every city, town, and village in the world, everything necessary to terraform a barren planet into a garden. All of this existed in spheres of chaotic energy the size of a baseball. This machine, forged of metal and driven by magic, produced miracles.
“Siduban stands as a beacon of hope to the world and proclaims the bounty of Lady Chaos,” Euphemia’s actress declared. “Never again shall conflict arise from lack of resources, nor shall Order exploit such needs in his pursuit of control.”
Transcending Limitations Page 22
