Once more Algrim had taken the form of a boulder, and resumed his rather literal roll around the world. He thought of the gods he had met so far, many of whom were rather eccentric, and all of whom had been encountered through sheer coincidence. Or fate. Was some unseen force guiding his actions? Was his task, his fixation on repairing the world, all part of another entity’s greater plan?
Perhaps it was.
Then again, perhaps not. Perhaps he was the master of his own fate. Perhaps such speculation of higher purposes was merely a wishful attempt to apply logic to something he still didn’t fully understand.
~
“It’s good that I see all this.” Uwné said as he looked around. The mountain ranges were far off into the distance but he was surrounded by them at almost all sides. The human guide, a younger man but with a thick black beard stood beside him looking a lot livelier. Around them stood four more golems.
The land, for now, was still mostly an ashen wasteland. That would change of course. Uwné had ideas but he didn’t want a repeat of the Bound Ocean. The life here would be better planned. It would support all living life that would roam here. He envisioned a true paradise. One he could almost see as he looked around.
But his train of thought got disturbed by some distant rumbling. Not that of another earthquake. Both Uwné and the human turned to look at the dust trail in the distance coming closer. “Is that common here?” The god asked.
“No… No not at all.” The human said, looking rather confused at trail.
Unwe’s divine senses would soon pick out the cause of the dust cloud. At its head was a rather large boulder, rolling through the landscape. As he continued to observe it, it soon became clear that it was not being propelled by its own weight or momentum, for whether it moved uphill or downhill it still retained the same speed.
The boulder came closer and closer, until it was nearly upon them. Then, all of a sudden, it dissipated before their very eyes; dissolving into a cloud of dust which quickly enveloped them.
“Oi!” a new voice shouted through the dust cloud. “Is one of ye another god?”
The guide turned to look at Uwné, who took a step forward and leaned on his cane. “It so happens that I am.” The god of crafting said, beaming a bright smile. Meanwhile his four golems formed up behind him. “It’s good to see another of my kind here. What is your name, friend?”
“Algrim!” the stone god returned with a smile. “And who would y’ be?”
“Uwné. God of Crafting.” The old man god said. “What would bring you here to this humble corner?”
Algrim smiled. “God of Crafting, eh? I think we ‘ought to be friends!” He stepped forward. “Friendship ‘ought to wait, though. I came ‘ere to ‘alt the tremours. Would y’ be willing to lend a ‘and?”
“I’ve been working on them myself a little already. Though it’s been hard work.” Uwné said as he stroked his white beard with his one free hand. “It would be my honor to work with you Algrim. Do you have any ideas on how to halt them?”
“I do!” Algrim nodded eagerly. “An’ it’s already been proven to work in no less than four areas! Walk with me an’ I’ll explain the concept.”
The crafter-god turned towards his mortal guide and said: “Give us a moment.” The man nodded and walked away for a bit. Followed by the four golems. Then Uwné turned to Algrim: “Lead the way.”
In the end it turned out to be significantly longer than a moment. Algrim explaining the concept of the pillars, their range, and the effect they had was simple enough on its own, but the location he needed to build the next one on was still some distance away. Eventually, however, they arrived. The area was still desolate as ever. Ashen land stretched to their north, south and west, while a petrified forest stood at the east. All sides were marked by crags, steep cliffs and sharp rocks all around.
“Right, so, if yer goin’ t’ ‘elp build this, then I also need yer word that you’ll protect it,” Algrim said once they arrived.
“I swear, upon my own godhood, that I will protect the pillar.” Uwné said without missing a beat.
“Good. We can start right now, if yer ready.”
The crafter-god took his simple hammer and chisel in his hands. “I am ready.”
“Don’t need those. Just raw power. All ya gotta do is give me yer hand and offer some,” Algrim said, extending his own hand.
“Oh.” Uwné said. He did feel a bit disappointed that they would not work the shape of the pillar physically. Then again it made sense that such a creation was made out of pure divine power. He slapped both tools together in his hand and they ignited. Forming a small sun which he then offered to Algrim.
Algrim clasped his hand, absorbing the power into himself which he then merged with his own. A sky blue light flashed in his other palm, before fading away to reveal a crystal of the same colour. Algrim offered it to him. “See? That wasn’t so ‘ard. Just drop it on the ground there, and it’ll take whatever form y’ want.”
Uwné took the crystal from Algrim’s hand and examined it for a moment. It felt like a pity, to simply let it be created with so little effort. Still, he tossed it a few feet away to let it grow. The crystal quickly transformed. It grew larger and larger while it turned into stone. Soon it stood as a 25 foot tall statue of Algrim. “A worthy monument.” Uwné remarked.
“That it be,” Algrim nodded, before turning to face him. “Sorry t’ cut this short, but I ‘ave t’ be off. Still got one more t’ build. We’ll meet again some other time.”
“You’ll always be welcome to these- my lands now, I suppose.” Uwné said as he outstretched a hand.
“I thank y’ for the invitation,” Algrim said as he shook the other god’s hand. “Y’know, if I evah find whoever left th’ world in such a sorry state, I’ll ‘ave a few choice words for ‘em.”
Uwné is sightseeing in a bit of land together with some golems and a human guide. Algrim, travelling as his boulder, rolls straight towards them. The two greet each other friendly and Algrim asks Uwné for help in making the next pillar. After a short misunderstanding Uwné offers up his power freely and the pillar - a 25ft statue of Algrim - is made. Their meeting is cut short by Algrim having to make the next pillar.
Civilization in its crudest form was starting to flourish around Uwné’s anvil. From the hill, he could overlook the people. His people? They certainly looked up at him. They were busy raising more shelter against the harsher winds. Others were busy cooking the tough flesh of the slaughtered drakes together with some of the red tubers they had found along the river. Others were busy skinning the drakes or removing their teeth and other valuable items. Uwné was delighted to see humans take up some tanning knives themselves as they started cleaning the skins. On the side some warriors – he really shouldn’t be calling them that – were busy going through some rough exercises. Caine led them.
Caine. It was a name Uwné had heard frequently now. They said he fought with suspicious skill. Some distrusted him. Still, he was one of the first to take up the armor and weapons Uwné offered and was one of the few of those now that still lived. “The land is slowly healing.” A voice said. It was one of the golems, though not one of the less self-aware ones. A small group of them were made by Uwné to be more than just heavy lifters. He needed to know what happened around the world but travel was difficult. Even without his limp. He couldn’t just abandon these people here and now.
“Not fast enough.” Uwné said as he looked out at the river. Its beautiful, blue water flowed across the land and had brought spots of green. Sadly, all that water ended up wasted as it fell off the edge. Gone forever. The world needed more of it. More water for life to cling to. Sadly there was nothing over the edge to catch it. No support. No bottom. Nothing.
What if the water just clung to the sides of the world. Like a child unwilling to let go of its mother? Not supported but… suspended. Uwné shook his head. One would have to rewrite the laws of nature to do that and while he knew he was a powerful creator god, surely he was not that powerful. Sure not. Though perhaps he did not have to write it completely. Maybe he would just have to… tinker with it a little bit. Driven but curiosity he tapped the Anvil twice. Its simple stone form began to shift into that of a plinth. Stone moved like it was liquid to form a frame of some sort of large device. It was made of pullies and beams and when it was done forming it stood empty for a second. Though it looked like it would hold something.
Moments later thin, rainbow-colored glowing strands began to form along beams and through combs. Weaving themselves into a taut stretched, fantastical-looking fabric in front of Uwné. Very carefully he let his hand run over the fabric, though he didn’t dare to touch it. A needle materialized in his other hand which sat empty for a moment as well, until a strand of sapphire blue formed in its eye. Focusing himself with a slow exhale, Uwné searched for the right spot in the fabric. One wrong jab and he could imperil the world. Or he could have caused a bit of wind.
After very careful consideration he slowly moved his needle through a small hole in the fabric and looped it around forming a small knot. The water of the river stopped falling down. Instead, it started to gather at the mouth of the river. The pressure of the flow pushed the mass of water further. The god smiled. He was successful. What he saw before him would happen across the world. River water would start to gather at the edge of the void-coast instead of wastefully falling away. Creating a ring of blue around the world.
Then the earth beneath him rumbled in a way it hadn’t for some time now. From the underworld, rocks began to move upwards and sideways. As if they tried to push through the land and failing that, began to roll upwards towards the coast. The coastlands began to fray at places. Cracking and shuddering free as water filled their wedges. Which only pulled them further away. Some of the land floated upon the water through some strangely altered law of nature. Other’s sank beneath the waves.
Uwné panicked. The world was coming undone! He had done too little too recklessly. Quickly he started running his hand over the fabric again. From a mortal’s standpoint, it would look as if the world was collapsing in places again. People screamed behind him. Fearing once more in their life. Others across the world probably screamed again as well. Though it wasn’t so bad. Not yet. Everything could be saved. If only he worked fast enough. His thread began to shift color from sapphire to emerald, with hints of ruby and diamond and some sapphire still. There! He found it. His error. He looped his needle through the fabric, again and again. And then one more time…
The rumbling stopped. Some land around the world had probably come loose and now floated into the water. Others would form archipelagos as they were nearly ripped away from the main continent. The frayed land that had sunk, as well as the ground that had come from the underworld, remained suspended in the water.
Uwné slumped down to the ground as he quickly tapped the loom twice more, revering its shape into an Anvil again. “Never let me do that again.” He ordered one of the smarter golems. Which just gave a small nod of understanding. And while he uttered those words perhaps on impulse, he knew that the Golem would now use all its power to stop him if he even thought about remaking that loom. Not that it would matter much if he really wanted though.
Meanwhile more water – more peacefully again – kept gathering around what was once mere voidcoast. The same would be happening across the world now. At least most of the water would be saved now. Though Uwné had not accounted for the underworld. Where water found its way through the maze of tunnels and underground waterfalls. Eventually, the water was released from the strange ringed grip Uwné had forced upon it and fell down into the void below regardless.
Uwné looks over the burgeoning civilization when a Golem reports that the land keeps healing. But not fast enough for Uwné’s liking. He thinks the world would be better off if the water didn’t just fall over the edge but instead clung to the sides of the world. Though that would require rewriting some fundamentals of the world.
Curiosity drives him to at least try and tinker with it a little. So he does. For a moment it seems to work, until the world shudders again and some of the lands starts tearing themselves apart. The god quickly rectifies his mistake (though not before at least some land was loosened).
His name was Qurkantha and he ruled this ashen paradise. Some would’ve called him a beast only because he looked like it. Because he walked on four legs. True, he did not wield weapons like others. He did not walk upright to spot dangers from a distance. He didn’t need to. His scales protected him. His slit eyes looked further than any of the bald monkeys ever could. Just like them, he could mold the air he exhaled. They called it ‘talking’. Just like them, he could question his own state. He made decisions not out of instinct. Now, laying on the hot black rock overlooking his land he had made the decision to rest. Whatever happened, his less aged companions would be able to handle it. These days nothing came at them that didn’t die within a few minutes.
That changed when he woke up to a rumble. In the distance, he saw it coming. A billowing wave of ash raced over the ground in the distance. It confused him. There hadn’t been storms for a long time. A creature that looked like him but smaller came howling at him. Qurkantha understood the howls very well. Something was coming. With a bark, a snarl, and a howl – things the bald monkeys would see as only that – he dismissed the packmate and ordered him to gather the others. A force was approaching. Perhaps something that had come through the rifts somewhere else. Like Qurkantha had. Such was the nature of all living things. To claim and hold and live off. But the red-scaled creature would not give up his prized possession so easily.
Sometime later another dust storm was raging towards the first one. Led by a growling and snarling Qurkuntha. Once again he would prove his ferociousness! His eyes tried to look into the roiling wave of dust ahead of him. Trying to discern what was coming. He could see now, but only barely. He saw shades and shadows. Small ones. Too small to have caused the roiling wave to trail them.
He relayed the information to everyone around him. Whatever attacked would die easily though. The two roiling ashen waves clashed with each other creating pure chaos. Qurkantha couldn’t see what he was attacking. He just saw the dark shapes and swiped with his arm. Catching one. Then he swiped with his tail, catching another one. Both were send flying. Something hit him. it didn’t bounce like it used to. He slammed away the attacker, though missed, and then grabbed whatever managed to slip between his scales. It was a tool, a spear. But not made of bone or blackened wood like usually. It was made of some dull grey metal. Then he felt himself get pierced again. More came. Shade became clearer to see. They looked like they wore the same dull grey metal on their bodies. Qurkantha roared his battle cry. It was answered by his pack.
He swiped and slashed and smashed. One shade broke underneath his arm and he lifted it up. It just looked like crumbled grey metal. Still, they kept coming. Swiping didn’t kill them instantly, though it should. In the chaos of the dust not much was seen. Qurkantha let out another bellowing cry. Fewer answered. The fighting continued. His claw rent through the grey-skins. Red liquid sprayed over his paw. They were the bald monkeys! Wearing a second, metal skin. Qurkantha laughed in his own way. He kept fighting. Then bellowed again. Even fewer of his pack answered. Things were turning sour. The monkeys didn’t stop coming.
The red-scaled, black-furred beast that was Qurkantha has let out a cry of retreat before he swiped one last time with his tail and turn back around to run out of the dust storm they were fighting in.
Once outside the thick ashen cloud that whirled on the ground, he looked back to wait for his pack. For a second none came. Then one ran out. Then another. And then one more came out limping and whining. Qurkantha took a step towards him but the first two stood in his way. Their growls were clear. They had to run. Things were bad. Qurkantha didn’t want to. He didn’t want to leave behind a packmate. The limper whined again. Then, from the dust and ash, he could hear it. Whistling. Three thin rods came flying through. Two of them drilled into the limper. He collapsed with one last whine.
Qurkantha was mad, but also realized he should fight here. He should be back at the nest. Gather the females and the cubs and find a new home. But as he looked back, something was wrong. Ash billowed up in the distance at the nest and thin flames erupted.
“Monster!” Qurkantha heard from the dust. One of the grey-skinned monkeys came marching out. Holding a long stick with a sharp blade at the end. “Your kin and kind are dead.” His words dripped with venom. Venom Qurkantha could understand even if he couldn’t understand the words. That didn’t mean he would die easy. He bore his sharp fangs. If in his heart he was making peace with it. He would die here and now. But he would take as many of the slayers with him. “Let’s finish this!” The monkey said, raising the spear at him.
Qurkantha instead opened his jaw. A torrent of fire exploded from his mouth. Engulfing the human who started screaming as the flames consumed him. More humans came rushing from the dust. As did more of the arrows that had killed the limper. Most bounced off of his old and hardened scales while he bit down upon another monkey. Severing her legs from her body. Another swipe and another crush. But more humans came. The mighty ruler of the Black Mountains was being cut a hundred times. His thin, violet blood came pouring out of his wounds.
Eventually, he collapsed. Exhausted by the blood loss and the fighting. His vision blurred. Alas, death was just another path. His kind held nothing against. They weren’t afraid of it. The only he regretted was that he couldn’t take more of the cruel, tiny things with him. One of the monkeys came closer. Qurkantha tried to open his jaw and breathe one last burst of flame. He couldn’t. All strength vanished. The monkey, the human, he spared no time. He raised his spear and plunged it down. Forcing Qurkantha’s soul into the vast dark sea.
~
Caine removed his helmet. His spear was still stuck in the giant lizard’s head. The right side of his face was bleeding a lot. The flesh around his eye was thick and swollen. But he had finished it. He had killed the Tyrant. His people were safe. No, safer. “How many dead, Kiera?” he asked the person stepping next to him.
Her armor was near identical to that of Caine, though it was perfect in size. Just like Cain’s armor perfectly fitted him. “All together?” She said, her voice betraying her far too young age. “Seventeen. Twenty-one wounded.” She looked down at the monster they had slain as a group while still holding her own spear. Its sides were filled with arrows, spears, and even the gaping wounds made by axes. The elder drake named Tyrant hadn’t fallen easy but he had fallen. Later on, they would feast.
As if the gods, all of them, blessed their fight something rose up through the sky. The people looked. Its light shone like the ancient tales about the sun. Even Uwné, as he stepped through the duststorm he had conjured, looked up at the golden disc and smiled. Others were truly restoring the world as well. He couldn’t wish for more. Behind him, blue lights appeared through the ash and dust wave. Golems moved slow and cumbersome.
The automatons gathered around the Tyrant and his kin. “Carry them back to the Anvil.” Uwné ordered. And almost all the Golems obeyed. Almost all, save one. That one followed Uwné while seemingly walking with a stick. Both of them headed for the mountain range. Where the other group of the warriors had killed the last of the drakes.
Though on his way Uwné realized he shouldn’t call them warriors. They weren’t. They were fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters that had picked up the weapons he offered. Dreadfully few of them could actually fight. The armor and weapons helped and it won them this battle, but many still died. They would need to train, but there was no time to train. They needed to get better but the monsters wouldn’t sit idly by to let that happen. It was a brain-wracking problem. One that consumed Uwné as he approached the nest.
It most than just a place where the drakes – now dead and strewn around – stayed and mated. In the center of the large cave, surrounded by human fighters it pulsed. A rift. A relatively small one. But still big enough to let monsters through. The Tyrant had been the first, but if the matter wasn’t handled he also wouldn’t be the last.
Uwné walked closer to the tear in reality. Beyond it, he could see fire and rivers of molten rock. It was a hellish plane. One worse than the Continent was right now. It was also the home of these monsters. Still, the god of crafting was curious. What materials could be found beyond this threshold? He extended his hand and carefully pushed it into the rift.
Suddenly his fingers felt empty. Drained of something vital. He felt weak. The heat was burning his hands. Afraid he pulled back his hand. The second it was back on the main plane of existence his hand looked as if nothing had happened to it. The rifts were dangerous. Perhaps more so than he first thought. With his other hand, he made a fist and the rift was closed instantly.
Enter Qurkantha, an elder drake. He sees a wave of dust coming and decides to answer it in kind. With his pack, he charges to protect his land. In the dust, they fight. He crushes grey-metal shade after shade. Soon he realizes they are in fact bald monkeys (humans). He keeps fighting, though they start hurting him so he pulls back out of the chaos of the dust. Dreadfully few of his kin escape as well. Behind him then, he realizes the monkeys had played him when he noticed the nests themselves were being attacked as well.
With his nest destroyed, his kin dead, and no way to pull back he decides to fight the last desperate fight. In which he vows to kill as many of the monkeys as he can. Though eventually, he falls.
The humans, supported by Uwné, declare their freedom from the Tyrant of the Black Mountains. Though the price was steep. Especially in times like these. Uwné’s golems, raised from what Exo left behind but moving through magic, start gathering the bodies of the fallen drakes. Meanwhile, Uwné checks out the rift the drakes guarded and came through. As he puts his hand through he realizes something’s wrong when it enters the other layer and pulls it back quickly and then closes the rift.
Fifty-seven crystals floated over the area around the World-Anvil. All of them containing chaos and destruction taken from the land and crystalized. Some looked like they contained a gaseous substance. Other liquid or plasma. Some glowed, others were totally inert. Uwné was relentless as he hammered away at the fifty-eight crystal. It would take a long time until the world was pacified. But it was labor he was willing to perform.
As long as he wouldn’t be disturbed. He heard it first. It was a sort of shrieking noise. That then turned to the sound of raging fire. It came from above. Uwné looked up. Through the smoke clouds, he could already see it. Or rather the burning ball around whatever came from the Great Beyond. His eyes turned wide when he saw it coming straight from him. With destructive speed, it came crashing through the air. For a moment magic pulsed around it but it still came falling down.
A strong gust of wind pushed the meteor upwards. It flew over Uwné’s head and crashed a bit further away. The god of creation carefully limped his way towards the object. When he was close he could still feel the heat dissipating from what looked like a huge ruby. Curious, confused, and a bit concerned he poked it with his cane. Nothing happened. The shape was odd. Too angular, too straight. Deliberately made. Whatever it was before, magic had altered it when it came crashing into the world though. “From the heavens now as well?” Uwné asked himself as he looked up. As he did, he felt forlorn somehow. Something was missing in the skies. That would be something to work on after the crystals perhaps. In the distance, another streak of smoke plunged through the clouds and crashed into the world. Then another and another. Some broke apart as they fell. Others let out deathly shrieks of a creature in pain. Whatever was sending the objects had to be cruel. To send one over and over and over again. Only to watch them transform by what Uwné now considered the protective shield of the continent he stood on. Assured that the world was safe from invaders from the beyond, the god of crafting returned to his work.
That changed when he felt the air itself shudder and groan. Something pulled on the very rock and stone from above. Uwné looked up again. He saw something titanic hurling through the heavens. Consuming magic. “No… No!” The god shouted, finishing the ninety-seven crystal with a final smash.
“I will not let it happen.” He said as he raised his free hand. From beneath his feet, molten rock and metal seeped through the tiny cracks of the ground. The flows twisted around each other each time producing a closed lotus flower. The outer sides of the petals were made of nacre. Soon on the barren stone all around the World-Anvil over a hundred of such lotuses had grown. Just in time. Uwné saw something crashing through the world again. This time it wasn’t transmuted. He could sense many metals. Iron and gold and copper. None of it made sense. But it instilled a fear in him. The invaders had weakened the Continent’s magical shield.
Then his worst extraterrestrial fear became real. Something larger than the objects before came through the clouds riding fire. It shifted and changed. Controlling its descend until it pierced the clouds and rejected its shell. High up there floating over the land was a diamond-shaped thing that radiated power Uwné had only ever felt deep from within him.
“This world has enough to deal with already. Return where you once came from!” Uwné shouted and the very winds carried his voice. The lotuses bloomed revealing the silver inside of the petals and the golden core. A finger-thin beam of light shot forth from one of the flowers. First harmlessly hitting the side of the diamond. Then the light turned blazing hot in an attempt to pierce the shape and destroy it.
The blue spotlight on the invader at first continued its roaming when the small shot hit, the impacts causing only ripples on a thin barrier protecting its outsides. Only when the stronger beam hit did it react, flailing around wildly as the heat caused the entire glow around its perimeter to sputter out at once. Then a great glowing shield unfurled in front of its spotlight. Which meant it was still facing the entirely wrong way. After a fraction of a moment it swung round and placed the quarter sphere of a barrier, thick blue and partially translucent, in between it and the fire beams and, in doing so, the machine discovered Uwné.
The blue light of its single eye shone down upon the god like a spotlight, illuminating the anvil and surrounding area as the new barrier absorbed the fire, and the heat damage they had done rapidly wiped away from the surface of the machine by an unseen hand. Yet it did not lash out immediately, instead seemingly observing the god from on high as it fixed him with its unblinking gaze.
“Begone!” Uwné shouted. The other lotuses bloomed open. Over a hundred thin beams of light aimed at the floating Diamond. The energy shot was not of heat but freezing cold now. Mist enveloped the thin beams. For a moment there was snow but that quickly melted away as it fell too far from the beams. The god of Crafting hoped it would be enough to break through whatever protection the invader had and knock it out of the sky forever.
In response, the shield flickered and then quickly changed color to a warm red, and continued to absorb the lotus’s strikes.
Then a grasping hungry field appeared along the start of the beam, reaching out towards the lotuses but failing to reach them, petering out only a short distance from the machine. Then it turned off and the spotlight moved, bringing the barrier with it and briefly exposing itself to the cold rays. It seemed to flinch, and then the invader put the barrier back in place and left it there this time, before scanning the landscape and then finding what it wanted. Far away several large boulders floated up off the ground, wrapped in a blue glow, and were then hurled at the lotus garden.
Many fell short, the toss scattershot and almost clumsy but some aimed true. “No!” Uwné yelled. He took two steps limping, supported by his cane. Then shot forward into flight. Smashing himself into one of the flung stones. It shattered upon impact and stone showered down. Then he flew into the next and the next. Every single one that would have destroyed the lotuses was pulverized by self-sacrifice.
When the last stone was destroyed Uwné kept floating in the air. “Leave this place now!” The god shouted again as he waved over his lotuses. All of them began to slowly rise up from the ground, spreading out in the air. Their beams started to fluctuate. One moment they were hidden in a self-made mist, the next the very air around them burned.
It was enough. Still floating in the air Uwné gritted his teeth. For a second something pulsed over him. For a moment revealing a form made of nebulae of all colors. “I will not let you take this place. These people. They have suffered enough!”
The barrier too, fluctuated, shifting from blue to red and then back again, chasing and then catching the rhythm of the beams as a glowing green line formed across the eye.
”yehsofomarias rheanreas ransre ter x fasd djna” the thing echoed, the line worbaling like the depiction of a waveform as it emitted garbled tones and white noise until it snapped into meaning screeched in a poor mimicry of the human tongue run through crude degraded wires, circuitry and heavy compression ”There’s nothing out there!”
Stones rose all around it as it spoke but instead of futility soaring forth once more smaller beams shot out the side of the craft and struck them, bringing them together, beginning the process of molding them into something new. Vaguely humanoid forms, towering in size, rapidly began to coalesce out of the raw materials it had raised up.
For a moment Uwné was taken aback when it made the weird sound, and even more so when it talked in an actual language. For a second he felt compassion and wanted to lower the lotuses again. But then it grabbed the stone and started to mold it into what he could only assume would be golems.
Golems to invade the world with. “Cease your invasion!” Uwné said, his own voice sounded distorted at first. “Cease it now or be destroyed.” His voice now sounded deeper, impossibly deep and low. He spoke with the voice of something titanic in shape. Power pulsed across his skin again. His core – as the god of crafting – exposed itself. Radiating pure divinity as his True Form was almost unleashed.
Meanwhile, the lotuses had kept floating upwards. A swarm of silverly gleaming flowers now hung between the ground and the black clouds. Their beams shifted from the main shield towards the golems being made in an attempt to destroy those now.
”You cannot force me to leave the only world” the machine stated simply, its voice less maddening than before but still heavily plated with artificially.
The shield dropped as soon as it stopped being focused and the construction of the golems seemed to intensify as a result. Many were blown apart by heat or cold or both, but the rest formed into metallic angles of death, unfurling great wings upon which blue flames flared.
And then promptly dropped from the sky.
The Golems smashed into the earth in a rain of metal as the eye of the machine glanced around with what might have been frantic horror, only for many of the machens to haul themselves off of the ground, hoist their weapons, and charge, a touch unsteadily, across the broken wastes in a wave of steel towards the god and his anvil.
Again Uwné felt a moment of compassion. It was looking for a place to live. That was only natural. Could this continent not be a sanctuary for all life? Even if it wasn’t born here?
“If you had come in peace I would’ve welcomed you.” Uwné said. His lotuses focused on the golems marching towards his most holy of sites. “But you came as a conqueror. Assailing this land.” To add to his point Uwné flicked his wrist. The large ruby drone he had retrieved before was flung towards the middle between the golems and the lotuses. “You started this war. I shall see it to an end if I must.” Uwné spoke not with malice. Not with hate or joy. There was only sadness in his voice.
And when he spoke those words his form rippled once more. This time, it exploded as well. It exploded in a storm of colors and celestial heat. It exploded into the base stuff of pure creation and the gleaming stars that formed within. He looked faceless yet his visage revealed endless possibility. In his right hand, he wielded a hammer made out of the stuff of suns and he was ready to use it. His titanic True Form revealed itself.
It visibly flinched back from him as he unveiled his true form. Despite his great size, however, the invader was larger still as it hung in the sky, and so it recovered quickly, staring down at him.
Two titans stood with their armies ready for war, a war the world might not survive.
Then the light of the machine glanced down at the ruby. Back up at him. Then back down to focus on the ruby for a longer moment and then back up to him. Its armies suddenly faltered
”That is a probe” it stated. ”was a probe” it corrected itself
The silver lotuses kept shooting for a bit longer, but when Uwné noticed the armies had stopped, he ceased as well. It would appear a tentative ceasefire was reached. Somehow. “What’s a probe?” He then asked. Before he just assumed it was some projectile lobbed at the Continent.
”A probe is… one moment let me do this properly” there was a brief pause. The machine’s vocalization was getting a lot better, only slightly tinged with artificiality now ”’A probe is an unmanned and unintelligent spacecraft designed to be launched from a vehicle in order to scout distant locations. Probes have limited maneuvering capabilities and rely primarily on its initial launch for speed. Useful for remotely surveying worlds, asteroids or other space phenomena via fly by. However the probe is not suitable for in-atmosphere scouting as it is incapable of surviving re-entry or navigating within it’...” it said, clearly reading, complete with looking up and slightly to the right at nothing while doing so, before focusing on Uwné again. ”In hindsight I should have asked that before using them,” it admitted, managing to inject some emotion for the first time, in this case, sheepishness.
Sheepishness Uwné mirrored. “Ah…” The gasses that made up his body dissipated around him as the stars flickered out. Revealing underneath all of that his first, mortal form again. “A scout.” He probably should’ve examined the clump of ruby closer. “I suppose… yeah that would… yeah.” The god said as he mentally went over some thoughts. All gears now neatly fell in place. Even though Uwné could only fully understand about half the things the big Diamond said.
“Well… I think in that case we got off on the wrong foot.” The god said. “I am Uwné.”
”It did not help that I did not prepare a communication system, or consider how my investigation would appear to those below. I apologize.” it said. Below it its army had turned around and was gathering before it. ”I am... One moment” it said, flicking its sight down onto the election of machines and activating the field it had failed to reach him with earlier, which rapidly de-constructed the robots and pulled their resources up into the floating machine.
”I am called Explorer. Apparently” It continued as if nothing had happened.
“Explorer. That sounds more like a job than a name, doesn’t it?” Uwné said. “So do you intend to explore this world?” He continued as he looked around. “Or what’s left of it…anyway.” He added quickly, realizing in what a state the Continent was in. It had been part of a greater, lush world before. The god of crafting knew that much. The explorer, wherever it came from, was probably sent out to explore that world. Not the sad remains of it now.
“I’m sorry that you came all this way for a world as broken as this one.” Uwné said solemnly.
”I suppose it does. Or a title. For a name name let’s go with... Exo” it decided, before taking another glance around the broken remains of the world ”We work with what we are given I suppose? Also I’ll admit, I am not entirely sure how I got here or where I am from. There is, as I said (rather poorly I’ll admit), nothing out there. Just a ring of debris circling this continent within which I appear to have lost my memories, and then beyond that nothingness. Forever.”
”Perhaps I came through one of those gateways that seem to be part of the current mess? Or there used to be things out there and I left them when they stopped existing and came to the only thing that was left. I am unsure.” it theorized. The machine had floated closer as they talked so as to reduce the amount of shouting going on.
The confirmation that nothing else was out there stung more to Uwné than he had thought. Deep below he knew there should be so much more. The foundational building blocks of existence should be out there. Trillions of stars. Great shapes of creation.
“That’s possible,” Uwné said as the Explorer – no, Exo – talked about his origin. “I might have come from one of those portals myself. I don’t really remember anything until I was standing here, in an ashen plane. I think this used to be a forest.” As if answering his prayers the god of crafting heard a rumbling far off in the distance. Then water came raging from the edge. Carrying with it all the filth and dirt it had picked up along the way. It had fallen into some old riverbed and followed that course again. Until it reached the void coast and dropped down into nothingness.
The whole phenomenon made Uwné smile. “Seems like I’m not the only one trying to repair this world.” He said as he watched the water flowing, before turning back at Exo. “So what will you do now? Remain a giant Diamond shape hovering over the world? I’d imagine that would make exploring the caves below hard.”
”It seems not” Exo agreed with interest as it watched the event unfold with him, before replying to his question of size, ”I have machines for the places I cannot go. Though doing things in person has worked out better so far. I will have to think about it, see if I can perform that transformation of yours in reverse. But that can wait, there is still plenty to see up here.”
The machine ceased its scanning of the water and returned its gaze to him ”I feel like I still owe you more than an apology, Uwné. I have made you spend time and resources you could have directed towards your task.” it said, ”Is there anything I can do to assist you to make up for that?”
“You owe me nothing.” Uwné said as he waved his hand, dismissing the issue altogether. “I would, however, like to ask you a favor. As you can see, I’m pitifully immobile at times.” He said as he tapped his hip giving him the limp walk in his mortal form. “But travel and exploration reveal interesting things of the world. Interesting substances. I have no doubt that you’ll find many rare metals, gems, fabrics, chemicals, and other materials. Bring some to me, if you would. I might be able to craft some tools to aid your exploration.”
”That I am more than capable of doing. Infact, let me begin right away” Exo said, before raising their eye up, ejecting some of the material that used to be part of the golems into the air in front of them and then forming it into two stacks of metal bars, before lowering those down to offer to the Uwné.
”These I gleaned from the remains of a large and aggressive creature that came from one of those portals that opened up in the ring I awoke from. One attracts the energy that transformed my probe into ruby, the other reppels it. I hope you will find them useful. Those gateways likely hold the key to many more wonders in equal numbers to their dangers which I intend to investigate along with this world.” they informed him
“Attract and repel magic?” Uwné said as he let a hand run over the first stack of metal. Even now he felt the magical force drawn towards it. How strong was it? Could it be made stronger? Weaker? What would an alloy of the two do? Would heat alter their properties? Would it work forever or would there be a limit to it? “Fascinating.” Uwné said, completely absorbed for a moment by the metal. Its uses will be myriad for sure.
Then, far behind Uwné yet still close enough to see it, lava violently exploded into the world from a newly made crack in the land. More noxious gasses joined the atmosphere. Uwné’s almost childlike enthusiasm faded as he looked back up towards Exo. “I think I should return to my work first. Before there are only rocks in various states to examine for you. It has been a pleasure meeting you Exo and I hope we will meet again soon.”
”That would be a sad state of affairs. It was interesting to meet another. I hope I will do so again,” it paused for a moment and then asked ”If I do, would it help if I directed them here, to this area you are working to make safe?”
”I would like that so very much.” Uwné said with a smile and then he limped back towards the Anvil.
”Then I will do so. Till we meet again” it said, bidding him farewell.
The lamplight of the great machine left him then, as the wandering explorer departed, drifting away seeking to find all that there was to find and see all that there was to see, leaving the crumbled shell of magic resistant metal and the carcasses of the golems destroyed before they had even been made behind. A memory of a battle between titans that ended in mutual understanding.
Though on his way Uwné stopped to hold one of the floating lotuses in the palm of his hand. It was pretty big in his one hand though. “What am I going to do with you?” He asked, then he looked up again. His divine senses pushed beyond the cloud layer to see the vast nothingness Exo had promised there was. “Yes, I suppose this world could use a little light. A little hope. Drift off, little one.” Uwné raised the lotus up and it continued to lazily fly upwards. Together with most the other lotuses. Untouched they flew through the clouds to meet the vast black expanse. They flew higher and further still. Spread out over the whole continent. Until from the surface, if you could look through the clouds, you could only see them as tiny silver specs on a vast, black canvas.
But some remained to lazily drift through the air around Uwné. He waved over the earth around the Anvil crumbled and vanished. The emptiness was soon filled by some water the god of crafting took from the nearby flowing river to fill it up. Then the flowers drifted down again, to rest upon the water. Like their kin high above they too glowed with the silver light of stars.
Uwné witnesses one of Exo’s drones drop through the atmosphere and fears the land is being attacked from yet another side. Though feels safe in knowing that magic apparently protects them. That lasts until the Siphon is hurled through the Continent’s air and Exo pierces through. Uwné, believing the world is attacked by extraterrestrials, creates flowers that shoot magical energy and commands the entity to leave.
He and Exo go back and forth a bit, sending rocks and oscillating the energies from hot to cold and back. Uwné even transforms into his True Form. Though both sides soon realize that Exo is in fact not trying to invade the world. The two take a step back (metaphorically) and introduce each other. Exo explains his predicament (that he doesn’t know who send him or from where). Both sides become amicable and Uwné asks Exo that if he finds interesting substances that he bring some to the god of crafting. Exo obliges and already offers up the magical repelling and attracting metals.
Uwné says his farewell when he realizes his work is not yet done and they both say their goodbyes. The lotuses, first weapons, are repurposed to create the illusion of a stary sky in over the Continent. Though some of them remain around the Anvil.
Once the god of stars. Once the god of nebulae. Once the god of creation.
Or would he be that? Uwné didn’t know for sure. Couldn’t know for sure. The visions of pure creation as a force of nature were hard to ignore. Were they memory or prophecy? He hoped prophecy. For if it was memory then truly how low had he fallen?
He could hear the rumbling only a split second before it happened. Next to him, the earth cracked. The stone plate rose to the heavens. Black ash fell like a waterfall from the suddenly risen plateau. A bit further underground pressures forced molten rock to explode like a geyser. Again and again it erupted. Uwné stood in the middle of all that appearing as a man. Mortal and old. With a bad hip which forced him to walk with a cane.
Yet despite his form, he felt powerful. There was no doubt to it, he was a god. A god that woke up amid hell, upon a broken planet. Where life clung to the last embers. Another tremor tried to shake him but he stood his ground surprisingly easy. Still, the surface all around him fractured and broke. Huge chasms ripped open or were pressed closed again. The very world was in turmoil.
A fractured surface consumed by fire was not life’s only problem here. Even now, as he walked, he was stalked by creatures. He loathed to call them monsters, as that would suggest they were something unnatural. At this point, mortal life like mankind were the monsters, for their continued existence was unnatural. Despite the apparent supremacy of these creatures, Uwné felt like they did not belong. And when he finally saw a rift far in the distance, he knew it was true. Still, there were here now and they would have to be dealt with. Several times had he summoned a weapon to fight them himself. Liquid iron had seeped through the cracked earth to form a weapon beneath his palm. Yet every time he tried to charge, the form he was in failed him.
But now he had found his place. Quite literally even. It was a relatively open place upon one of the higher pushed plateaus. The view was staggering. Everything was ash or stone or molten rock. Volcanoes were spewing forth endless amounts of smoke into the dark sky above. It was all illuminated by dim, orange firelight. Then there not too far away was the world's edge. Anything that would walk beyond it would fall into endless darkness.
He raised one hand slowly. Before him an anvil shaped more like an altar rose from the ground. It was made out of solid stone risen from the core of what remained of this world. It was more than just a representation of it. It was the world itself. And like the world, the moment he summoned it the anvil-altar already started to crack.
Uwné outstretched his other arm. As he went to grab seemingly just air, his hammer took shape. A hammer that looks like it was cast from molten light itself. When its shape was complete he heaved high up and slammed it down upon the altar.
Except he didn’t hit the altar. Between the divine hammer and the world anvil was for a split second something else visible. Something that appeared to have a small, crystalline side that Uwné had just hit. Then it had vanished again. As if it was never there. He struck the altar again. This time the very earth around him began to groan in response. Plateaus cracked and collapsed next to him.
Again he struck down. With each strike, the momentarily visible barrier between the hammer and the altar took more shape. Shaping itself into a crystal. He struck again, and again. With each strike, the crystal remained behind for longer. Until, with a final strike, the crystal no longer vanished. Inside brown-yellowish energy lazily moved back and forth. It levitated on its own away from the anvil. Then Uwné began anew.
And with each strike, he stilled the earth around him a bit more. The quakes grew gentler and gentler. Fractured plates stopped rising and falling. Steep plateaus crumbled forming more manageable hills at places. While remaining their cliffsides in others. The fire still reigned and the sky was still full of smoke but at least with each strike the earth itself was freed a bit more from chaos and destruction.
Uwné thinks a bit about what he saw in visions. Then thinks about the fact that the world was ending and that he woke up in the middle of it. Just standing there. He muses further about the monsters coming in from other layers. He tried to fight them but his form did not allow it.
Then finally he finds a nice spot to start his work, amid a constantly breaking land where plateaus of rock and ash rise and fall over and over. He raises an anvil-altar which he calls the World Anvil and starts smacking with his hammer. With each smack, he isn’t hitting the altar but something in between. He’s forging the chaos and destruction that’s in the very earth into tangible crystalline pieces and so siphoning it away from the land which grows calmer (relatively) and calmer.
Uwné's work isn't instantaneous. He is calming Galbar as a whole but will not be able to do so immediately. In short, if you still want the world to crack, rise and collapse all around you go ahead!
Domain:Crafting - Crafting seen as the act of creating something greater than the sum of its parts. Be it forged, tinkered, tailored, carved, or simply put together. However, there is manufacturing and crafting. Manufacturing is creating many items and tools that are near-identical to each other. Uwné recognizes their necessity – a mine needs hundreds of pickaxes – but does not claim any governance over such production. Instead, he focuses on unique creations like a carefully crafted sword, bespoke silk robes, or an intricately carved wooden table. In short, he focuses on artisanship.
“Alright, alright! Everyone take a seat. There is plenty of room.” Kinearith said, though the acoustics of the vast room made it sound as if she was booming. Everyone – even those furthest away – could hear her. Her eyes went over the many young faces. She could read uncertainty and excitement in equal measure. Just like she had some twenty years ago. As every had taken their seat she started her lecture by pointing at the first bass relief to her left and her new student’s right.
“Unwé did not come riding upon lightning.” The trigger phrase made electric-like energy to course across the lines of the bas-relief she was motioning at, showing the part of the story she would talk about. “He did not come brining fire and fury. He walked upon the remnants of Old Tellur. He looked more like a beggar and a hermit than a god. Even then he looked crippled.”
Her hand moved to the next bass relief and let it light up. “He offered his services. Tellur was collapsing. Many had lost all hope. But not all. At the abandoned forge he started working. Those who would become Tellur’s heroes of old flocked to him. Begging to repair their swords, spears, armor and shields so they might repel another wave of the monsters that assailed the city. He did more than that.”
The next relief drew everyone’s attention. “He forged more than just steel. Hope was woven into the arms. The next shadowy attack wasn’t merely repelled. The monsters were slaughtered by glowing blades wielded by the greatest of heroes. Tellur stands still because of him.”
“And it still rises because of him.” The last relief lit up. “New Tellur is a beacon of modernity. Unwé guides and we – his Tools – act. So New Tellur became the greatest city upon Galbar.”
“You do him too much honor.”
Kinearith snapped towards who said it. It came from a man standing at the entrance of the aula. Everyone turned towards him. Shocked that they would say such a thing in New Tellur. Yet the old Tool already recognized the backlit shape as it started walking the stairs down towards her, supported by a cane. “The God is nothing but a humble servant to Tellur.” His shape was a little hunched over, with a long beard and wild white hair on his head. “It were the heroes that saved Old Tellur.” He walked with a limp. Finally he reached the bottom of the stairs and walked up to Kinearith. “But I thank you for your kind words about me none the less.” He said as he looked up. Kinearith had to fight the urge to kneel before him. He had said several times that he hated that, yet it only felt proper thing to do in the face of divinity.
The old man turned around to face the people gathered. “Remember always that it were the heroes that lifted the sword. And then they lifted the hammer and chisel with me. Together we raised Tellur up. And together – with you all now as well – we will ascend it!” He stepped to the side and motioned behind him. The large, blank walls rattled, then started moving. Slowly at first, then with more speed. Dragging segment after segment away. Revealing the large all-encompassing ocean beyond. There, not too far away from the shores and harbors of Tellur something gigantic was constructed in the water. It looked like a pearl made of several pieces. With tens if not hundreds of ships moored, heading to or coming from the construction. Unwé looked at it with pure pride. It would transcend all his previous creations.
Base form: Uwné looks like a white, old man with a respectable but somewhat singed beard. He walks with a slight limp and is supported by an unadorned, black cane. His face is rimply and covered with liver spots. Though his chest and arms seeming surprisingly strong for his apparent age. he's dressed in brown robes bearing no real finery. Around his middle, he wears a simple belt from which a hammer, chisel, needle, carving knife and various other tools hang.
True form: Dropping the humble facade would reveal a giant creature made of pure matter and possibility. A creature made of nebulae and small stars. His hammer is as much part of him as the head or arm. It glows with the might of suns.
Quartz-like eyes peeked into the dark corridor. The moontorches were extinguished this late at night in this wing. Night elves weren’t expected to come here. Cilantra clutched the leather-wrapped package close to her chest as she slowly stepped into the hallway. The boards underneath her foot creaked and she stopped to look around. There should be no-one here. No, that was wrong. Other things roamed these darkened halls they said. Human students that stalked the night were said to suddenly vanish in the shadows. Others only heard faint screams. The day later they were found in their bed. Fast asleep. Believing everything that happened the night before was just a horrible nightmare.
Cilantra wasn’t in the mood for nightmares. Though she had no idea how she got talked into this by Lakhmu. She smelled the air for a second just to be sure. Nothing. Good. Carefully she stalked through the hallway. She passed corner after corner. Moonlight illuminated some of them. As she approached the cobwebbed underground cellars see gave a small prayer of praise to the goddess of the moon who clearly had blessed her with some stealthy moves before going in. Oddly enough the cellars felt safer than the first floor above. One door here stood out due to its sheer lack of webs. Slowly she opened it as she entered it on the tips of her toes. Not that it mattered, as the old hinges gave off a horrible creak.
“Did you get it?” Asked a voice in the dark. Cilantra knew it was Lakhmu.
“Yes, yes. I’ve got it.” She said as she opened up the wraps. The pitch-black room suddenly lit up as if the sun fell through the ceiling. The light, however, came from a crystal that Cilantra was holding. “Is this strong enough?”
“It should be.” Lakhmu, his olive skin and dark hair now visible, said as he carefully picked it up. “Did the headmaster or Auriëlle catch you?” He asked.
Cilantra shook her head. “I was in and out. The headmaster was no-where to be seen, and I knew Auriëlle was still talking to Duxus.” The nelf student said. “They won’t know until tomorrow. Are you sure this will work?”
“Absolutely.” Lakhmu said full of confidence as he started to put some golden rings around the crystalline structure and then carefully lowered into a cage. “I’m going to be the first to defeat her.”
The other two, a human girl with paint on her skin and a small goblin looked on with fear in their eyes as they both handed Lakhmu some brass disks. “I think you’re going to lose.” Said the painted girl. “She’s been here for thirty years. Nobody won. She’s too strong.”
“That’s because nobody has fought her the way I will.” Lakhmu said as he attached the disk and then finally lowered the whole cylindrical cage into a sort of large, closed lantern. The second the cage was properly secure the light of the crystal within dimmed. Long shadows were cast upon the walls by the four students.
~
The young human mage marched through the hallowed halls of the Omniversity. Before him, the sea of students parted in front of him. He looked ready for war. Dressed in robes bound by leather. His belt carried a variety of stone runes, glass globes containing some liquid, and wooden, carved totems. In his hand he carried something covered by a piece of cloth. Wherever he passed, the tension was growing. Lakhmu didn’t see it but his march was spread through the purple-eyes their web. Rumor spread faster than he could walk. Before he stepped even foot in the gardens everyone knew what he was doing. Everyone, including the headmaster. Who waited for him just outside.
Lakhmu stopped in front of him. He looked defiant but didn’t say a thing.
The headmaster, for his turn, did not look very afraid. Instead he looked worried. “Are you sure?” He asked in that familiar, tranquil voice of his. “The lessons here might be painful from time to time but what you are setting for to do… it will hurt. Are you sure you are ready?”
The boy didn’t say anything. He didn’t move. He simply stared down the strange, alien-looking but friendly headmaster. He would defeat her and return home worthy of his parents’ name. If he didn’t, how else could he prove he had grown over the years?
Sad eyes watched him for a second longer before the headmaster stepped aside and allowed him to walk into the main section of the gardens. “She’s already waiting for you at the arena. May the gods watch over you.” He said. Lakhmu and his retinue marched on. Followed by a throng of interest children. The headmaster kept looking at the boy as he walked away. When the children were gone he finally added: “Because magic will not.”
They said she was over sixty now almost. That she had been at the Omniversity for thirty years. They said she was a princess of a faraway land that was cursed by the sun herself. They said she fought wars in faraway lands in the west. Lands only the fishy Akuans talked about. The rumors were endless about her. Lakhmu had no idea what was true except for two things. She was the strongest mage on the island. Maybe in Mydia. Nobody – not in the last thirty years – has bested her. The second fact was something he realized again when he saw her sitting in the sands of the arena: she could see no light.
Floating stepstones allowed people to sit in tree canopies woven into benches. Statues holding bowls surrounded the sands. Each contained a pristine, fist-sized pearl. Lakhmu stopped before he stepped through the magical barrier that protected everyone on the outside from the magical onslaught that could be released from inside.
The students all around were cheering and shouting but not necessarily for him. The crowd becomes a mass his father used to say. Warriors learn how to fight. Wizards learn the art of magic. Merchants the art of bartering. Leaders must learn how to sway and steer that mass. Right now that mass was untouched. Some rooted for him. Others rooted for Auriëlle who sat cross-legged in the sand in front of him. The vast majority were hollering for a spectacle and nothing else.
Standing now, in front of the barrier, Lakhmu felt something very dangerous: doubt. Auriëlle sat with her eyes closed. That didn’t mean anything. Everyone on the island knew she was blind. She could be seeing him right now or truly have pulled back her senses to meditate. There was no way of knowing.
“You can do this!” Cillantra said from behind him. “You said you could for months! Now get in there and prove it!”
The battle barely lasted a minute.
One could precisely see where the barrier ended. Pristine, green grass fell away into a deep, horrific crater. Fire-blackened stone jutted out everywhere within the circle. The ground itself was cracked and sundered. Lakhmu laid on the ground. Exhausted, defeated. Auriëlle was standing over him, holding the lantern he had made. The horns that curled from between her hair slowly vanished again, together with her shadowy and demonic appearance. The golden metal rapidly lost its hot, red glow. The fight had been fierce but from the onset it was clear that Lakhmu’s secret weapon wasn’t enough. Without giving him the dignity of her gaze Auriëlle walked out of the broken land with the lantern. Ice broke itself free from the huge spikes that stuck out of the earth. In the air they formed beautiful icy songbirds that followed the sorceress. Singing their soft, sweet, serene songs.
~
The Solar Crystal Lantern was put inside one of Auriëlle’s many storage closets in her office. To many, it would look like a terrible and bleak place. Buried deep within the Omniversity with not even a window to look out from. There weren’t even candles, though several stones were imbued to give off warmth whenever someone entered the room. Inside countless of closets with closed doors lined the walls. No cupboards or glass cases. Nothing here was put on display. Which only fed the rumors of what was all stored there. What lurked behind the copper locks in Auriëlle’s office? There was one bookshelf, but it was not filled with fragile paper but stone tablets.
“You could’ve gone easy on him.” She heard from behind her, though she had sensed the Headmaster approach her office long before.
“I’ve never gone easy on anyone. Neither have you on me.” She said over her shoulder before she walked to some cobwebbed corner and opened the closet down there with her magic. From it she took the old wooden bracer she hadn’t worn in thirty years. With a finger, she traced through the blackened grooves dug into it while saying: “The world won’t go easy on him either. Give it time, in a few years he’ll realize how important a lesson it was.”
For a second a dreadful silence fell upon the room. There was rarely silence between the Headmaster and Auriëlle. There was always something to be shared with pride or shouted in anger between them. There was not a subject too uncomfortable between the two. Until now, apparently. The strange, unique, fish-like creature that was the Headmaster took a step forward. “Thirty years ago you arrived here. You’ve grown since, in more ways than I thought. In magic… there is nothing left for me to teach you.”
Auriëlle surprised, turned around to face him. It was an old habit that just would die. She knew, for some years now, that the time of her return to Toraan was coming. Yet somehow she still felt surprised.
The Headmaster continued: “But before you go, I have promised the Three-As-One to show the Omniversity. In all of its glory. For that task I could not imagine a better guide than my oldest pupil.”
A nelf is sneaking out something out of a room at the Omniversity. She manages to reach the cellars where her friend managed to put together some sort of metal device. Lekhmu, a human with olive skin, places the crystal the nelf girl by the name of Cillantra stole into the device creating a sort of magical lantern. The next day he sets out to defeat Auriëlle. Who became a near-mythic figure within the Omniversity for her power. He challenges her.
The battle is over in about a minute. Lekhmu is utterly defeated while Auriëlle takes the lantern from him and takes it to her office. Her office is a rather drab place filled with sealed closets. She and the headmaster have a short conversation on how she could’ve gone easy on Lekhmu. Then the Headmaster reveals it’s time for her to return, but asks her before she goes to give the Three-As-One a tour of the Omniversity.
Post Length: 9.5K Characters +4 Prestige >> Auriëlle
It was only a breeze that flowed over the sandy desert lands of the Wastes but it carried something more than just air. It carried an essence that was invisible to all. Like a seed, it fell down to the sand and sank through the ground. Under the sand, its heat spread. Melting the sand around it into glass and fusing it together to make something more. The heat spread like a virus. From above you could see the red glow break through from time to time. Like underground lightning. Then finally a limb burst forth from below. Grabbing the surface as it pulled its body up. Another limb reached out and pulled itself up. Sand flowed like water off its glassy body. Yellow-glowing beady eyes saw light for the first time in its existence.
The Glass Wastes were a paradise for it. The creature looked up at the sun and opened its split jaw to suck in the magical energies that hung in the air. Sparks traveled through it but were visible from the outside. The sunlight that traveled through it was fractured into a variety of moving colors that shone below it. Lowering its head again, it observed the land. The sand was like the greenest grass and the glass pools were like sapphire lakes to it. But it saw further out. It was born near the edge. There it saw strange things. Things that reached up, drenched in an ugly color. The closest were blackened from fire. They looked better yet still not perfect. Not like the utopia it was born in.
A mound of sand next to it flashed with red light a few times. The newborn wasn’t afraid though. It heard the faint calls of its brethren. Each of its brothers and sisters that were born around him looked different in some way. Yet all let out that soft, high pitched whine when they gazed up towards the scorching sun and consumed their first bite of magical energy. All of them cried out towards the ugliness they saw further out. They also felt that their unity brought forth something greater than the sum of them. As they came close a barely-visible shimmer flowed from their bodies.
The herd moved slowly at first. Letting the newborn that joined them get used to their limbs as they moved through the pleasant, warm sand. Sometimes a deep-frozen breeze flowed over them. Creatures of flesh and skin would’ve been frozen in a near-instant. The elementals just happily stopped for a small nip of the frozen magic and then continued on. Yet as they approached the end of their paradise, they felt as if the magic had grown thin. The sparks they had charged in their body would have to carry them further as they started to pass from sand into the blackened earth. But as they moved, the earth below them began to change. Fertile earth was broken down as its nutrients were sucked out of it. The herd was busy tearing down the burned trees as the ground underneath them very slowly turned to the same fine grain as the Glass Wastes.
One shrieked. The herd looked up to see what was happening. The ash of the burned tree it was trying to tear down was somehow attacking it. Blackened soot began to smear its glass face and sticky ashy began to fill its eyes. It cried and trashed. The rest of the herd flanked it as they desperately looked around to see what was attacking it. Ash billowed up from the ground. Painting their underbellies as they reared towards it. Afraid they slowly walked backward as stones began to fly through the air. Cracking their skin slightly. When they were near enough again, they turned and fled completely. When the moon fell, they were back in the safety of their paradise. Like all creatures, they would sleep but tomorrow was another day in their cherished burning sun. Their instinct told them to return and turn more of the cursed world into paradise.
The glass elementals are born and begin the slow creeping spread of the Glass Wastes. An unknown mage managed to scare them away though... for now.
“Eh, no worries. It’s not like it was hard to guess where I would hide.” Bug told HIRAM as she booted off the virtual machine she used to hack Nadia. It was worth a shot. Though something in the back of her lizard brain now wanted to know more than ever what was on Nadia’s phone. Top secret intel? Please, Bug could access some grandfather Congressman’s laptop and get all the classified intel she wanted. Perhaps not on Promenade itself directly but its affiliations. So what was Nadia trying to hide just now? Maybe it was something better… like selfies! Maybe Nadia didn’t want her selfies to be discovered! Or the fact that she’s using some dating app? Wait, maybe she didn’t want the texts to her husband found? There were so many possibilities. She just had to find out.
And then she heard a very loud bang coming from somewhere downstairs. She just grinned as she looked up. Bombs were fun to feel from a distance. It was even more fun to know that someone had tripped them. Though with Binx you could never know how powerful they were. It could’ve been a fairly strong one in the vents or the equivalent of a MOAB on the first floor. The only thing you could be sure of was that the explosives expert just didn’t do 'proportional'. Or at least so Bug thought.
She got an answer to that question soon enough when Carmen crawled out of the vents. The girl was drenched in paint. “Oh no! Carmen what happened?” Bug instantly said as she put her pad down next to her. But not before she pressed her special record button. If anything moved on a camera her tablet would detect it and record it. So she could watch it back and catch up again while she tended to Carmen.
“Binx got you good I see.” Bug said as she squatted next to Babel and tried to clean some of the paint off of her with some nearby cloth she found. Then curiosity got the better of her. She quickly felt in both of Babel’s paint-covered ears to feel for the earpiece. She found nothing though. “Oh, damn that’s a shame.” Bug said as she felt no earpiece. If she could hack into their comms the old-fashioned way she could’ve lured Warheit inside as well perhaps. Maybe in a second, she could look into the vents.
“So… I don’t actually have any zip ties.” Bug then said, realizing she was short on that particular equipment. “So… I’m sorry for this.” With a CAT5 cable she bound Carmen’s arms to her back. Though she left plenty of room so her prisoner wouldn’t be too uncomfortable. With that work done she grabbed the old Mac that was already booted up and put it in front of Carmen. “You want to practice some languages? I can set something up for you if you want to?” Meanwhile the tablet, turned away from both of them, showed many of the cameras Bug had taken over. One particular one, half-covered with paint, still managed to capture and record Binx and Ollie's interactions.
“How was I supposed to know that they would work with something so ancient down there?” Emily said while she was focusing on her three screens in her darkened room. An echo-device with most of its electronics hanging out gently glowed with the light greenish color that HIRAM used to simply acknowledge her. Her room was a mess of half-gutted computers, several HDDs connected but otherwise sprawled on the floor, and other electronics. To the untrained eye, it would be chaos in its purest form. To Emily, there was a pattern with specific paths through the mess she could walk through without issue. With her rant to HIRAM over, she refocused on the code in front of her. On the screen, to her left, an AIM chatroom was bursting with activity but she ignored it. It didn’t feel as if she was just typing code like one typed a story. In her eyes she was creating a machine in her mind. Complete with cogs, gears, and conveyors. She didn’t know how much time paced. When she was in the zone she never did. It was very hard to draw her out.
"Good morning, agent. Mandatory training exercise at 1700 Coolidge Road in Swindon in exactly 29 minutes. Failure to attend will result in significant consequences."
Emily literally screamed when she heard HIRAM’s voice from the Echo device. Then she slapped it. Hard. The electronics jiggled a bit, but nothing stopped working. “HIRAM you scared me!” She yelled at him. “You know you can’t just- Oh wait you said mandatory?” Emily never turned off her computer. Instead, she just grabbed her tablet and bag containing her drones and toolbox that laid in the corner of her room. Then she rushed through the house. Which was a mess to say the least. Long CAT cables ran from her room downstairs. The 3D printer she had setup in her parents room was grinding away. Schoolbooks and letters laid as fallen towers around the living. From the fridge she grabbed a can or energy drink. It didn’t contain much in the likes of healthy food.
Some twenty-five minutes later she arrived at 1700 Coolidge Road, Swindow. Her hair was a mess and with the dark rings underneath her eyes she could pass for a badger from a distance. Yet she didn’t look even remotely tired. With her bag strapped to her back she quickly rushed over. Right in time to hear Nadia’s explanation. For the most part she ignored the admonishment for the Timbuktu operation. It wasn’t her fault after all. Then the subject switched to the training itself and Bug started paying a lot more attention. A slight smirk grew on her lips. She even snickered when Ben got shot in the chest. It looked like it would hurt. Well she wasn’t planning on getting hit. No, they’d never reach her.
When the briefing was over Bug quickly grabbed one of the bags holding a bomb and ran into the building. Inside she wasn’t about to rush through the building though. Instead she read HIRAM’s briefing of the area first. And then shot Static a quick message:
“Don’t die too quickly ;).”
With a smirk she send the message when she arrived at the IT room with a smaller generator already in tow. Of course she would be holing up in there. But knowing where she’d be and taking her out were two vastly different things. Inside she got to work. She wrestled with cables, managed to get the generator humming, had her fingers dance over her own keyboard and that of the Mac, screwed some antennas in and managed to get the cams up and running. In the end the IT room looked worse than when she got in. Wires laid sprawled around. In three corners laid the gutted remnants of a switch. Though each had their twin antennas up in the air. In the middle of all that Bug sat. As if she was the one connected to the cables she was sitting cross-legged on.
“I’ve got cams-“ She said through the comms. All around the building, the small box-cameras turned on with blinking red lights that made them far too easy to be seen. The antennas in the corners were her real trump card though. With pings and some triangulation, anything that could send a wireless signal could be tracked. As it happened, phones were particularly easy. “-and I’ll have them tracked the moment they walk into this building.” She followed up. Then with a smirk, she watched through the eyes of her little Beholder drones. Who sat motionless underneath chairs or in some dark corner on the ceiling of the third floor. Motionless and quiet. “Come on. Come inside. Step into my web you little-“ Bug’s self-hyping stopped when she noted an unfamiliar signal in the vicinity. It was a phone but with a hotspot on it.
Jackpot! “Get me in baby. I know you can.” She said while tapping her tablet. On it several snooping programs started running. Probing the digital defenses of Nadia’s phone. She just had to get in so she could send a message out. Just one message, that was all it would take. Just one port that was open. She’d fine it. She was sure of it!
Lord Zee
Vec
Rekkuza
Iwannabeyours
princess
Cmmelody
Necrodancer
ActRaiserTheReturned
Timemaster
