Four voices appeared in his mind: one bellowed, one lulled, one whispered, and one crackled. All of them chorused, If we shadows have offended, consider this and all is mended—
“That you have slumbered here,” Eric picked up, “whilst these visions did appear.”
“And this weak and idle theme,” five voices said, “no more yielding than a dream.”
The Four Basic Avatars appeared around Eric. Fiol stood next to Wiol and across from Waol; Eaol next to Fiol and across from Wiol. They looked towards the center, at Eric, a.k.a. Spiol, the Tool of Spirit.
“We have given you our memories of past Avatars of Chaos. We tried to only show those that would be most relevant.”
“You guys too, huh?” Eric asked. “You want me to be the next Chaos Avatar.”
“That is incorrect,” Wiol said. “We want you to be the last Chaos Avatar.”
“It would be the culmination of millennia of preparation, planning, and experimentation,” Eaol said. “We have watched Lady Chaos move her tricksters, elves, and miscellaneous elements into position for this purpose.”
“I can understand Tasio; he’s just a glorified sock puppet,” Eric said. “Why are you helping him?”
“Because we are not powerful enough to stop Order,” they chorused.
Eric crossed his arms. “So you’re using me like Kallen is.”
“Yes, we are using you, like you used us,” Fiol said. “It was by our power that you defeated Nulso and you will need greater power still if you want to defeat Nulso’s master.”
“I just want to be a common mercenary,” Eric insisted. “I don’t want any part of this.”
“That’s too bad!” Waol bellowed. “You know what Latrot is like and the whole world will be like that if we don’t stop its expansion. Order’s world will not allow something like the Dragon’s Lair to exist. Nor will it allow people like Annala to roam free.”
“HOLD IT!”
From within Eric’s body, a second human stepped forth. Their footfalls resounded on the floor of the soul area. One arm’s length away from Eric they turned around and faced him.
“Lunas!” Eric cried. “What-how are you here?!”
“I’m not,” Lunas said. “I’m a figment of your imagination.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Eric asked. “I spent enough time with Dengel and these guys to know the difference between real spirits and hallucinations.”
“Exactly. I am a real person; Aio was not,” Lunas said. “It was heartless of Lady Chaos to toy with your emotions like that.”
“Hypocrite!” Eric said. “All you do is toy with people’s emotions like you did with Kasile, Raki, Aegis, and doubtless many others.”
“Exactly,” Lunas agreed. “All must bend to my will, regardless if they are semi-divine, possess a chaotic bloodline, or use chaotic weapons because of my power, and I am only one ordercrafter. Imagine what my father can do with an army of them or an order avatar. These relics are correct when they say that such a being is beyond them.”
The four gods scowled.
“What’s your point?” Eric asked.
Lunas slouched and allowed a small smile to emerge. “Eric, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let’s start over. We can still be friends if you want, and in return, I will help you adjust to the Final Change.”
“Don’t give me that soft sell crap. You want me to work for you.”
“I want you to work with me. I need you to help me with the Final Change. Together, we can make Tariatla a better place to live for everyone.”
“This should be good...” Eric gestured for him to continue.
Lunas cleared his throat to remove the indignation blocking it. Then he conjured a viewing screen. Mages fought monsters in a walled city and the carnage of their struggle lay all around them. Above them, a group of tricksters pointed and laughed while eating popcorn.
“A world ruled by Chaos is a violent and savage place. There are so many monsters that tall and heavy walls are needed to defend against them and people must learn to kill from a young age if they wish to leave the safety of these walls. Yet even within those walls, one is not safe, for magecraft empowers one’s neighbors to kill as well. Above it all are the tricksters, those smiling fiends stirring up trouble for petty amusement. It’s not a nice place to live.”
“I can think of a billion or so people that disagree with you,” Eric said.
“That’s because they know nothing better. This is reality to them. All of this danger, magic, and mana mutation is normal. What if we could remove it all?”
Returning to his screen, Lunas waved his hands to dismiss the supernatural elements. Monsters gone, mages without staves, and tricksters in cages; the area was peaceful and empty.
“If there is no chaos, then there is no conflict. We can make a truly safe and stable world. On such a strong foundation, we can build up a society of great comfort and sophistication for all people everywhere.”
“Even the slaves?” Eric asked. “Even the elves? Even the people that don’t want anything to do with your world?”
“It will take some getting used to, such as the child who complains when his parents change residence. He adapts with time and sees the light. So too will the people you mention.”
“Thanks to the Grand Obelisk, I assume?”
“I was hoping you could help with that. See, you are from a world that is without mana and it gets along fine. With your help, I can better transition Tariatla to such a state.”
“What about the Grand Obelisk?” Eric asked again.
“I’m sure you could provide great insight for—”
“The Grand Obelisk. Don’t make me ask a fourth time.”
Lunas sighed and put his hands in his pockets. “Yes, the Grand Obelisk will continue to function and a network of Viceroy Obelisk will connect the capitals of other nations to it. They will ensure the peace and prosperity of the world.”
“By controlling the people,” Eric said.
“By controlling the world. No more natural disasters, ever. No more tragic accidents, ever. No more worrying about the world ending someday, ever. Order will take care of everything.”
“Will he micro-manage everyone’s lives?”
“Yes. Down to the last breath, but I can save you from that,” Lunas said. “If you work with me, then I can grant you and a select few others a privileged status.”
“So it’s a job with benefits, then.”
Lunas rolled his eyes. “If you insist, then this will be a job offer. I will make you a royal champion of Latrot. This position entails enforcing the will of the king, suppressing tricksters, restricting magic, punishing criminals, keeping jails secure; that sort of thing. In return, I will give you a handsome salary and other benefits.”
“Such as?” Eric asked.
“I can guarantee that your mind will not be dominated like everyone else on this planet. It will be monitored, of course, but your free will shall remain yours. I can guarantee the same or similar to those important to you: your school friends, your guild fellows, and even Annala. I might even be able to let her remain an elf. Regardless, both of you will be granted immortality, and not the conditional sort elves have. This will be perfect immortality; no aging at all and absolute invulnerability. What do you think?”
Eric held his chin, tapped his foot, and made “hmm” noises. Lunas’ right eye twitched.
“Can you guarantee that my mind will never be invaded, my soul never dominated, and my body never manipulated like a puppet’s? Never ever until all of Noitearc falls back into the Sea of Chaos? Can you promise me that I will be able to refuse Order’s commands, even within the scope of my job, and if not that, then on my time off from work? Could I choose to quit my job as ‘royal champion’ without immediately falling to brainwashing? Do you swear that I will retain the same freedom as a subject of Order that I currently enjoy as a subject of Kasile?”
Lunas clenched his fists. “No, I can’t. You will be at O
rder’s beck and call 24/7 and constantly doing his will. Your service will forever be at Order’s pleasure and he will be able to terminate it at any time.”
Eric smirked. “Order despises the free agent, does he?”
Lunas unclenched and shrugged. “He is, as you say, a control freak.”
“Then you can’t guarantee any sort of freedom for me or anyone else. I’ll be just as dominated as the rest of the world. The only difference would be that I’d have to consciously obey Order instead of being forced to do so.”
“That point of view is...” Lunas’ throat closed. “It is valid; perfectly valid.”
Now Eric truly considered Lunas’ offer. He thought about the risks involved in the paths offered him by the prince and the four avatars. He weighed the benefits of Order and the avoidance of Order’s menace along with the benefits of Chaos and how he would blow up if he became the Chaos Avatar.
He thought about how this decision would affect his friends and Annala. He thought about how Lunas treated them and would in the future and what they would think of he himself in such a future. He made comparisons between his home world and his adopted world and which one was better off.
It all came down to his monster instincts. Chaos is food and Order is a threat. Strip away all the speculation, all the philosophy, all the pros and cons, and it came down to those two facts. Chaos feeds him and Order threatens him. Even if he worked for Order, he would be threatened by Order’s domination.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but Dragon’s Lair policy states that all clients must pay in gold.” He snapped his fingers and shifted his hair from the color of fire to that chaos. “In that regard, you can’t beat this offer.”
Lunas scowled. “You’re making a mistake. You saw for yourself how powerful Order is and how dangerous Chaos can be. Please, Eric, allow me to save you.”
Eric trickster-grinned. “You want to me welcome your domination? No thanks. I’m done listening to explanations.”
Lunas screamed and threw his hands forward. Innumerable order tendrils appeared and wrapped around Eric. Golden-brown light gleamed from between the cracks and exploded outward. Eric shook himself and the shattered grey cords dispersed like so much dandruff.
“I’m not into tentacle bondage,” Eric said, infuriating Lunas even further.
“You are going to destroy this world!” the prince declared. “I will do what is necessary to protect it. I killed my own siblings so that Latrot would only have one heir. If I’m capable of that, what do you think I would do to my enemies?”
“My friend Nolien is the heir of a duchy and he has two younger siblings,” Eric said in frigid calm. “You know what he did? He left.”
Lunas sneered. “Your friend is an idiot. He’s far better qualified than his hedonistic sister and overly ambitious brother. He lacked the spine to do what was necessary. Now he rolls in the hay with a street rat doing grunt work while his birthright teeters on the brink of ruin.”
“He wanted to earn it, not be given it because he was born first. If you gave me anything, it would only be a disguised thumbscrew.”
“Then we agree that power should only be given to those that earn it. My family earned our position by bringing order out of a chaotic war. We became absolute monarchs because the people, not the senate, the entire population voted it to us. They would rather live in peace than choose how they’re going to die.”
“That’s a false dichotomy.” Eric thought of the chaos explosion that turned him into a grendel. “Chaos can lead to danger, but it can also lead to safety.” Eric thought of the Seed of Chaos that turned him into an elf. “With chaos, one can grasp both peace and freedom.”
“What you grasp is nothing but despair,” Lunas spat. “Chaos destroys cities and mutates sapients. Order devotes himself to containing and banishing this menace. Magecraft is only a diluted form of it. You, a Battle Mage, should know this better than anyone.”
“Magecraft can be used that way,” Eric admitted. “But my friend Nolien is a healer; his magecraft only saves lives. Even my own magecraft is not pure destruction. My wind magic can shred a monster, power a turbine, or keep my apartment cool in the summer. Magic is what powers scries and airships that connect people from the far corners of the globe. Magic unites people, whereas your master would prefer them isolated and more easily controlled.”
“Yes, unity is indeed the difference between Order and Chaos,” Lunas scoffed. “Chaos values unity so much she would drop someone in a strange world, and then carve a staff out of them without their knowledge or permission.”
“The entire reason I am here,” Eric gestured to the infinity of his soulscape, “is to acquire that knowledge. The reason you are here is to convince me not to grant that permission. Order doesn’t want me as his ‘royal champion’; he wants me to not be the avatar of his mother. As soon as he’s done with me, he’ll toss me aside.”
“You are the hypocrite; Chaos does that to everyone,” Lunas said. “Even the Bard of Avalon admits as much; ‘As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.’ Why else would two of Tasio’s most prominent names be ‘Overturner of Fortune’ and ‘Founder of Practical Jokes’? The overturning is the joke, and he laughs himself silly over it.”
“You’re seeing only half of the overturning,” Eric said. “It is true that Tasio dropped me here with even less than what I had on Threa. However, I left Tariatla with much more than what I came with and I was eventually able to come back. Under your system, a guy like me would never get that chance.”
Luna slumped. “What a pity. It would seem that we cannot be friends after all.”
He tried to leave, but his feet wouldn’t move. Looking down, he saw they had been swallowed by the ground. He was now ankle deep in Eric’s soul goo. With shock in his eyes, he looked into Eric’s triumphant ones.
“Did you think we were just contemplating our navels?” Eric asked. “I’ve been drawing you in ever since you got here. You’re intruding in my spirit, and it’s time for you to pay.”
Lunas laughed. “Good luck! I may not be even the ordercrafter that Nulso was, but I still have Order’s hand on my head. You will find it difficult to destroy me.”
“I know.” Eric gestured to the avatars. “That’s why they’re still here.”
“We are ready, Spiol,” the Four said.
“Then give me your power,” the Fifth said, “and I will rid of us this pest.”
The Four glowed their respective color and then thrust their hands toward Eric. The Spirit’s Tool glowed with all four colors and his own mixed with them. Before Lunas’ horrified eyes, the colors melded into one. Eric gathered the golden-brown light into his cupped hands.
“End of the Line, Lunas! Chaotic Starlight!”
Chapter 9 Self-Control is True Freedom
A chaotic beam engulfed the prince and he howled in torment. Order’s protection only prolonged his suffering. His shrieks reverberated in the soulscape after he himself was gone, and then there was silence. Eric clapped his hands together and sat down heavily.
“Phew...Good riddance.”
“Don’t feel too proud of yourself,” Fiol said. “That was not the real Lunas.”
“What? Of course, it was. I’d know an illusion if I saw one.”
“That’s because it wasn’t an illusion. It was a ghost copy of Lunas that was created by the Grand Obelisk and inserted into your soul while you were in Latrot. Tasio was going to remove it for you after you made your choice so you couldn’t complain about being manipulated.”
“Thank you for crushing my sense of victory, goddess of passion. Anyway, am I going to be bedridden for the next few days?”
“It is possible,” said Wiol.
“With you, everything’s possible,” Waol said. “Don’t worry, kid. You’ve declared yourself a Knight of Chaos, so your alignment has changed from Neutral Good to Chaotic Good. Your soul can better handle chaos magic now.”
“Identity is nothin
g without experience,” Eaol said. “The second time is easier than the first. You knew what to expect, what it feels like, how to brace yourself. You should experiment to determine what you’re capable of.”
“You mean I can do more than chaos blades and the Chaotic Starlight?”
Fiol flicked his forehead. There was now a dot of mild hot pain there. Eric rubbed it away. “I keep forgetting where Kas got that from.”
“If you don’t like it, then don’t ask stupid questions.” An image of Eric’s mage spear appeared between her and Eric. She pointed at the chaos in its tip. “The passion you demonstrated here has transformed this from divine residue to a true blessing.”
“Lady Chaos is round-about when it comes to granting podesta,” Eaol said.
“She’s not going to change,” Wiol added.
“As a Knight of Chaos, your podesta over aspects of reality now includes chaos,” Waol said. “You’re not omnipotent, but you are capable of much more.”
Eric lay back on the floor of his soulscape, exhausted and reflective. They were right. He had made his choice. He was going to become the Avatar of Chaos. Whether or not he eventually exploded, he was going to make the most of his tenure. If he didn’t take the job, he’d die eventually anyway. All he had to do now was find Kallen and do...whatever it was one did when becoming the Avatar of Chaos. I’ll ask her when I find her...
Eric’s eyes slid closed and he woke up. I do feel more powerful! I haven’t felt this good since I first got here! He leapt to his feet and ran back to the theater.
Kallen was still there and so was “Sai.” The Trickster was braiding Kallen’s hair while talking about the good old days back in field agent boot camp. There were study sessions, practical exams, prank wars, late-night heart-to-hearts, and eating together in the cafeteria and in the field. For a while, Eric stood in the doorway and listened.
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