There are those who run towards the sounds of chaos, the screams of terror and the din of battle. Those who are the first to move towards the sounds of tyranny, injustice and despair. I cribbed that from a commercial, naturally. But it’s a sentiment I’ve thought about quite a lot in my life, especially over the last couple months.
Back when I first saw that commercial – for the Marines, as I recall – I laughed. That wasn’t me. They were barking up the wrong tree with that one. Sure, I might fight against things I thought were wrong, but I’d do it quietly, in ways that wouldn’t endanger myself.
That’s what I thought.
Yet, somehow, here I was. I could have fled at any point. I nearly did, in fact. Several times, I nearly gave up and walked away. But something kept me pushing forward.
At first, I think Kira had a hand in it. Before she woke up, when we both thought she was simply a part of me, I think she pushed me to be stronger. But as things progressed, I think, at some point, I started moving on my own two feet, supported by Aurora and the others.
And so it was that I found myself in the demiplane of Karzoug’s sanctuary, on a platform over a pit of flame. BECAUSE OF COURSE HIS SANCTUARY LOOKED LIKE LITERAL HELL.
Well, not exactly, I guess. The pillars made of gold were certainly not in any description of Hell I’d ever heard. Nor had I expected there to be enslaved storm giants on balconies on either side of our entryway. I guess the rune giant on the platform between us and the throne wasn’t too surprising, nor was the dragon next to Karzoug’s throne. Karzoug could have been a decent fill-in for Satan, too.
As a weird aside, I wonder if this place’s affinity for fire was why flames had been the key to entering it.
In the center of the room, on a platform a bit above us – near where the rune giant was standing – was a structure that looked like a well of some kind, with a lens floating over it. If I had to guess, I was looking at the Runewell of Greed, though I was curious about what the lens was for.
“At long last, the interlopers have made their way to me,” Karzoug said from his throne. “I must admit that I have found your actions most vexing. None save the other Runelords have ever been such a thorn in my side. I am impressed, and thus, must give you your due.” He clapped sarcastically. “But your interference ends here and now. Perhaps, had I realized your potential before, I could have made you an offer to become my loyal servants. But it is too late now, you have already given me reason enough to despise you and I must admit that I will take great pleasure in watching you die.”
I was surprised that Lenn hadn’t charged yet. But it was all for the best. Lenn’s restraint and Karzoug’s speech gave me time to examine the strange lens with my magic sight, and let me tell you, I was not happy with what I was seeing.
The lens was made to capture the energy of the souls of those sacrificed by Lucrecia and others, and feed that energy into the Runewell. Once the well was filled with power, it would allow Karzoug to leave this place. And he needed a lot of souls. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, to fill the well. And I could sense that the goal was nearly reached.
Karzoug needed to die. His crimes would be paid with no lesser punishment.
I drew my gun, took aim and held down the trigger, blowing through the pizzicato’s entire magazine in a few seconds. Of course, not all of the shots hit, but several did. “Kill them!” Karzoug shrieked. I could hear the terror in his voice and knew that the time for speeches had passed.
Lenn sprouted his flaming wings once more and shot towards the rune giant. The giant reacted by casting a spell to try to control the next closest target, Geo. Unfortunately for the giant, all that did was bring Jack to the forefront. And he still had a pissed off Lenn right in his face.
Empowered by Paulie, Jack flew up to deal with the storm giant on the balcony to our left while Lenntu began moving from cover to cover, taking potshots at the giant on the balcony to our right. Paulie continued supporting everyone as best he could, taking some cover from one of the giants so as to avoid being a target.
Aurora unsheathed her wings and flew up to engage the dragon while it was still on the ground. Which just left Juiz, Karzoug and myself – and Kira, but she was mostly there for moral support at the moment. “Let’s keep Special K busy while the others deal with his underlings!” I told the AI. Her robotic shell nodded and used its jump jets to bound up to the opposite side of the platform from Aurora and ready her rocket launcher.
I used my all day flight enchantment to follow her, and arrived just in time to watch as she used her readied rocket launcher to interrupt the first spell Karzoug tried to cast. But he had a magic rod in hand, which he used to swiftly cast a second spell, and I must admit that I wish it’d been that one that had been interrupted.
We didn’t witness it, but time stopped for Karzoug. Sure, it was only for somewhere between six and thirty extra seconds, but there was a lot you can do in that period of time. On the plus side, he couldn’t harm us, since he was outside the flow of time. On the negative, though, that still left a lot.
It resulted in the sudden appearance of a swarm of greater fire elementals – a natural choice since the rocket had exploded in a burst of flame – between us and the Runelord of Greed.
The arrival of the elementals caused me to reevaluate the battlefield. I couldn’t be sure, but I had the feeling we were losing. Sure, each fight looked fine, but the key was me versus Karzoug. I couldn’t beat him in a head to head encounter. I could only hope to survive long enough to buy someone else time to finish their foe and come help me. And even then, I wasn’t sure I could do it.
“Put me in, coach!” Kira said.
“We might need my magic, though,” I protested.
“Then why not both?”
“Kira, that spell is untested. We don’t know what will happen if we use it.”
“At this rate, I’m pretty sure we both realize what will happen if we don’t!”
Crap. She was right. Either I take the risk or we lose. It was my ultimate spell, born of research into Kira and my unique situation. I had created it on a whim, almost just to see if I could. But if I was right, if it worked, it would allow us to fight with all of Kira’s might while retaining my ability to cast.
“Alright. If this fails, it was nice knowing you. Juiz! I need you to protect me for a moment while I cast! Don’t let Karzoug come near me!”
“Noblesse Oblige,” Juiz responded. “Good luck. I look forward to your continued service as a savior.”
Once I started casting, I had to complete the spell. There was nothing else I could do, lest I risk a backlash. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who had assessed the battlefield. Karzoug smirked and whirled his glaive, charging towards Aurora, who was completely distracted by her fight with the dragon.
If he reached her, he would stab her in the back, and she would die, along with our unborn child. But I couldn’t stop casting. Not even long enough to order Juiz to help her. I was helpless.
Deep in my soul, I understood that this was the moment spoken of in the prophecy. If Aurora died, it would cascade, like dominos falling, one after the other. The prophecy said, “These five are dangerous and may very well prove capable of slaying a Runelord, but their chances of survival while doing so are only as great as the chances of two men creating life without a woman.” We might possibly be able to slay Karzoug, and thus we would still win, but we would die trying.
Unbidden, Samantha’s words came to me. “The answers you seek can be found in the Morning, little shepherd.” I hadn’t understood what she had been trying to tell me, not until this very moment. Not until I saw Juiz ignore my order. Not until I watched as she abandoned me momentarily to rush to Aurora’s aid.
The answer wasn’t to be found in a time frame. The answer I sought could be found in the Morning, or more precisely, in the Morning War. She’d done everything short of spell it out for me, but I’d missed it. I knew she played the Mass Effect series. And she’d even called me Shepard, for crying out loud, but I’d missed it!
The Morning War refers to a fictional conflict in a video game, a war where a race known as the quarians had tried to exterminate their artificial creations, the geth, after the geth had shown signs of self-awareness. The war was started with a question. “Does this unit have a soul?”
When I’d created Juiz, I had considered making her as a VI, but decided instead to make her a fully aware AI. I’d imbued her with her own will and sense of identity. As such, where a VI would have continued acting on my order alone, Juiz was free to make her own decisions. She was free to do what she wanted, based on her own preferences and sense of what was right.
So she charged and grabbed at Karzoug, slowing him only momentarily as he was forced to kick her away and continue his charge.
I don’t know if Juiz has a soul, as I’m not sure how to create one, but I’m certain that she is truly alive. I had created life, without the help of a woman. And I wasn’t the only one. Geo had effectively created Lenntu as well.
Lenntu was nearby, taking shots at the storm giant, when he saw Karzoug’s plan. He moved quickly, and got between the Runelord and the distracted knight, his shotgun blast dissuading Karzoug from his attack. He barely made it, only thanks to Juiz’s efforts.
“Their chances of survival while doing so are only as great as the chances of two men creating life without a woman.” I had despaired over nothing! We could still beat him! And we could stay alive while doing it!
I finished my spell and felt a strange sensation as Kira and my souls began to merge together once more, restoring what had been rent asunder by accident many thousands of years ago. I stopped being able to tell where I ended and Kira began. And more than that, the world around me began to expand. Where I’d once simply been highly intelligent, I – there was no “we” anymore – had become something more.
“NOW, WE ARE ONE!” I declared as time seemed to freeze around me. No, it hadn’t frozen like it had for Karzoug. Instead, I was thinking so very quickly that it was like I had an eternity to decide between actions, at which point time would move forward in six second intervals, with more eternity between each interval to consider my next step.
It’s hard to describe even now, and I lived it. The best I can do is simple analogies, and they really don’t do it justice.
What’s more than that, time had become only quasi-linear. I could see the sequence of events that led us here as if they were playing before my eyes. A million tiny things changing could have affected the outcome of this. I swear, my mother’s decision to sweep the kitchen one morning back when I was nine actually made a difference here.
In a limited way, this gave me the ability to predict the future. I could predict, with a fair degree of certainty, the probabilities of any number of possibilities. It was like playing a game of chess as a grand master against an intermediate level opponent, in a sense.
But my mind needed to be able to put everything into a context I could understand, so it turned the entire world into some kind of turn-based RPG. It tabulated the possibilities of injury to the point where it could assign everyone Hit Points, even!
My HPs were pretty low, if I’m being honest.
In addition to everyone’s HP, I could see a myriad of things, up to and including Karzoug’s entire list of spells prepared for the day, which was speculative, but was built on everything I knew about him as well as what I’d seen cast today, with what felt like about a ninety percent accuracy. I even accounted for things I’d seen but hadn’t noticed, like Karzoug’s treasure pile shrinking when he’d been in stopped time, which suggested that he’d used powerful ninth level magic to summon the elementals at an insane cost.
The entire world appeared to become a map of five foot by five foot squares, a grid that would allow me to better predict anyone’s movements within the six second windows.
And even stranger still, I could feel something watching us. Three somethings. Not gods. No, something even greater still. Cosmic forces beyond even the power of any god. They could shape our reality to our will, within limits they had set upon themselves.
Almost as if they were just people playing a game.
They were tied to different individuals. One was bound to me, Aurora and Juiz. Another was linked to Lenn, Lenntu and Geo. The third was tied to Paulie, but also seemed to control our opposition. As though he were some kind of cosmic dungeon master.
And I could feel something else: They wanted us to win. Desperately. But they could see what I could see.
We might win, but if things didn’t change, we would still die.
We were set up all wrong. We’d gone in naturally, with no preparation or planning. We should have worked to maximize a rock-paper-scissors dynamic, but had instead simply gone full in, rock to rock and so forth.
So we had to switch our targets. But there was one colossal problem. In said dynamic, we only had one rock. Lenn. And none of the giants was a scissors.
Their scissors was Karzoug. Only Lenn could hope to beat him on a one-to-one basis. If we couldn’t get Lenn over there, our only hope was to throw another pair of scissors at him, and if that happened, he was the biggest pair of scissors on the field and would win.
Okay, that metaphor ran away from me there. But you get the idea, right?
“Lenn! I need you to attack Karzoug! He’s the one who has been behind everything the giants have done!”
“GIANT!” Lenn roared and continued attacking his foe.
Crap. He was stuck in his single-target focused rage. Reasoning wouldn’t work. I had to find a way to get through to him. Something that he couldn’t ignore. But what could that be?
I beseeched the cosmic forces, begging them to intervene. If they acted, then Lenn could be moved. He would do whatever they decided. At least, it felt like that was true. They sent back a sense that it was out of their hands, that the rules constrained them. I felt my hope waning.
And then, like a bolt from the blue, the cosmic force I was connected to sent forth a sense of excitement. He – It? – had an idea. I was amused by the idea as I felt the beginnings of it come through the link between me and the cosmic force.
Yeah. That might actually work. It was the stupidest idea ever, but dammit, it could actually work.
“Lenn!” I shouted. “Karzoug’s first act once he’s free will be to round up all of the world’s prostitutes and put them to death! Then he’s going to outlaw sausage!”
The entire battlefield froze as everyone stopped momentarily to try to process what I had just said. Even Karzoug stared at me, mouth slightly agape, his expression saying, “Just how am I supposed to respond to that claim?”
If the world was a game, at least in my vision, it had rules. Some rules could be bent, others could be broken. And that was the thing about Lenn. Sometimes, the rules simply didn’t apply to him. If he wanted something enough, it simply happened.
One moment, Lenn was standing next to the rune giant. The next, he was gone. He hadn’t teleported. He hadn’t become invisible. No, he had truly and utterly vanished.
Then, he reappeared next to Karzoug. “I. LIKE. HOOKERS!” he roared, slashing with his axe. He barely missed cleaving the Runelord in half by a scant few inches. I could feel the cosmic forces cheering.
To his credit, Karzoug tried to convince Lenn that everything I’d said was a lie. But in the state he was in, Lenn would have none of his explanations. He trusted me more than he trusted Karzoug, and I had said that Karzoug was going to do something so vile that it had caused Lenn to forget his enmity towards giants and instead focus on a different threat.
Sure, I felt a little bad for lying, but this was one of those times where it truly had been necessary. I could apologize later, when we were all still alive.
But we weren’t out of the woods yet. We still had a fight to win. And we were still out of position. But I could deal with that. I had experience leading teams in complex fights like this. Sure it was all in video games, but the concept was the same, and I was a very experienced raid leader.
“Aurora!” I shouted, my tone of voice clear that this was a command. “Switch targets! Take the rune giant!”
Aurora disengaged immediately and charged the giant. “Got it!” she answered. “He won’t be trying to enslave anyone else while I’m here.”
“Jack! Finish that giant quickly and immediately target the other storm giant. We’re going to have to leave him unattended until you can get there.”
He let out a sinister laugh. “Oh, two for me. I can’t wait to see what their insides hold.” I felt bad leaving the two that were under the control of others to Jack’s brutal hands, but it was the best tactical choice.
“Juiz, your rocket launcher should be perfect against the dragon. Take him down!”
“Acknowledged,” the AI responded, moving to take a position against the blue dragon.
“Lenntu, these elementals are a problem that your shotgun should be able to solve. Get them off of me!”
“Hah! This should be fun!” the big man laughed as he knocked a fire elemental to the ground with a blow from the butt of his gun, then shot it in the face.
Paule was all that was left, and his was going to be the most complicated. “Paulie, go Glory and assist Lenntu. Then switch to flame and ignite the rune giant. Juiz will then need your help as Batcat. Lock down the dragon so it can’t stay airborne! After that, switch again and use your big healing magic to mend Aurora from the damage your flame will have caused to her.”
“ON-WARD!” Paulie shouted as he went Glory Mode and moved to help the big guy with the elementals.
I struck the free storm giant with a burst of light, temporarily blinding him. Then I danced my way past Lenntu and the closest elemental and unleashed a hail of gunfire into the elementals nearby. Next, I summoned a Bralani to assist Aurora. And finally, I countered a very dangerous spell Karzoug had tried casting at Paulie when he realized that Lenn could somehow shrug off any magic he threw at the big guy.
The fight lasted six of those six second intervals before Lenn finally landed the final blow. “How?” Karzoug asked as he collapsed to the floor, his organs sliding from the gaping wound to his torso.
The Runewell began to glow and thrum with power as Karzoug’s death upset an already barely-stable equilibrium. “Shield your eyes!” I yelled at the others.
The burst of light filled the room with powerful restorative energy. Even the dead came back to life, all save Karzoug. The Storm giants, freed from the control of the rune giant, immediately seized their larger kin. The dragon, seeing the situation, surrendered immediately to us.
Several of the others hadn’t been quick enough closing their eyes, and were thus permanently blinded by the brilliant flash. I gathered up a large amount of magicite from my pack and used it to fuel a powerful spell that granted my wish, which I used to return everyone’s sight.
The dragon removed Karzoug’s robe and brought it to me. “It is tradition withing Thassilon, that the wizard who commands the power to slay the Runelord may take his place. You have shown the power and the will to rule. You would make a worthy Runelord of Greed.”
“You could bring back the old ways,” Paulie suggested. “Before it was twisted into Greed, the virtue of rule was that of wealth. You have shown great aptitude in transmutation, so none would be able to contest you.”
Paulie’s arguments had merit. But could I really do that? Could I really just help kill a man and take his throne? “Why not you? You were a citizen of Thassilon, while I never was.”
“I’m not a wizard. That’s a much bigger issue here than your citizenship could ever be.”
The cosmic forces were urging me to do it, but there was really only one person whose opinion I wanted. I looked to Aurora. “You could help a lot of people with that kind of power,” she said. “And there’s nothing saying you couldn’t change the way things are done to your liking.”
After a near-literal eternity of consideration, I decided to go with it. I took the robe and used my magic to alter it. It shifted and changed, becoming an elegant black longcoat. I removed my other coat and put it on.
“If I’m going to do this, then it’s not going to be Wealth. That was the mistake of the past. Wealth doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with it.” The Seven Virtues of Rule had become the Seven Deadly Sins far too easily. “If I’m going to take Karzoug’s place, then let Xin’Shalast become the shining city of Generosity, a place where great wealth is used to better the station of all the world’s peoples. A place where learning is available to all, where even the common man will enjoy a standard of living far beyond that known today even to the wealthiest of men.
“In a thousand years, all the peoples of this world will have joined us in such an uplifted standard, even while retaining their precious liberty and sovereignty. All will look back at those who lived before, and will never forget their struggle, while knowing that this was the day when the shackles of ten thousand years of brutality were first cracked.
“Let it be known, to all corners of the world, that Xin’Shalast will be the city where freedom and progress at long last take root!” Okay, so it was a corny speech. But those kinds of things are expected during these situations, right?
“I liked it,” Aurora said, seemingly sensing my embarrassment as she took my hand.
Everything seemed so surreal. But the weirdest of all was Lenn. He wasn’t attacking any of the giants. “You okay, big guy?”
“During the fight, you said that the wizard had ordered the giants to do bad things. Was that true?” His voice was uncharacteristically subdued and quiet.
“Yes. I’m not entirely certain that the giants that attacked your village worked for him, of course, but not all giants are bad, and many were only doing what they were forced to do.”
“I will have to think about that. Were these giants just doing what they were told?”
“The two were controlled by magic. Not sure about the bigger one, but he was certainly working for Karzoug.”
“Good. I don’t think I want to fight giants anymore today.” What. I glanced around, worried that the room was going to freeze over at any moment.
“So, what do we do now?” Geo – once more himself – asked.
“Let’s gather up everything we can carry from here. I don’t think we’ll be returning here ever again. While you do that, there’s something I need to do.”
After thanking the cosmic forces, I sat down on the ground, my legs crossed, and dismissed the spell that had combined our souls. I wanted us to be individuals once more. There wasn’t going to be any of that Tuvix crap where someone had to medically murder the new entity to get the old ones back. Being combined was nice, and felt right, but it was lonely. I didn’t want to be “me”. I wanted to be “us”.
And then something went wrong.
As much as we tried, we couldn’t disentangle ourselves. We were in some kind of strange, semi-combined state. We weren’t a single being, but we weren’t two individuals. At some point, I think I screamed, because Aurora rushed to my side.
“Kyle, what’s wrong?”
“Kira and I…combined… our souls…”
“You what?!”
“Needed to do it to… defeat Karzoug… I think… we’re stuck…”
Aurora wrapped her arms around me. “Kyle, listen to the sound of my voice. Calm down and take your time. You can do this. Just come towards the sound of my voice.”
She continued talking for several minutes, the calm tone of her voice infectious. As we relaxed, we were able to take stock and, ever so slowly, we began extricating ourselves from the predicament we were in.
Once more myself, I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Aurora. “Promise me you won’t ever do anything that stupid again,” she begged, holding me tight. She was shaking with worry.
“I’m hoping it won’t ever be remotely necessary,” I replied, holding her tight. “Especially since I get the feeling that it’ll be even harder to escape from next time. But I’d like to think that one major adventure is enough for a lifetime.”
“Says you,” Kira replied. “As soon as you find a way to get me a body, I’m going to go find tons of adventure.”
“Hush, you,” I responded to my sister.
My little episode had given the others plenty of time to gather up all the useful gear in the room. Once they were sure they had everything worth taking from Karzoug, they even threw his corpse down into the flames.
“There seems to be an effect limiting our escape from here,” Paulie said in his Batcat voice.
“Try casting while you’re touching my gun?” I suggested. “It might allow you to pierce through the magic.”
Sure enough, that worked, and we soon found ourselves back in the material plane, once more within Karzoug’s palace. Wait, no. My palace.
Heh, I owned a palace. Take that, middle school guidance counselor who kept telling me that if I wasted all my time on video games and anime I’d never amount to anything.
Of course, something was wrong. We weren’t done yet. The ground was shaking, causing things to fall from the ceiling above. “Everyone outside!” Aurora ordered us.
“What the hell’s going on?!” Lenntu asked as we ran.
“No idea,” I said. “But the city showed signs of being on a volcano. This doesn’t feel like a natural earthquake, though.”
“The sleeper awakens,” Paulie said mysteriously as we reached the outdoors.
“What?” I asked.
“Mhar, the Old One who sleeps within the mountain.”
“What.” Did he mean “old one”, as in just some ancient being, or “OLD ONE”, like Chthulhu?
I felt the touch of something upon my mind. From the looks the others gave, they felt it too. The dragon and the giants even clutched at their heads and collapsed, as something overwhelmed their minds. And then a voice spoke in my head. A voice that wasn’t Kira, I mean.
“Most curious. There is something shielding your minds, but I cannot quite explain what. And you are the strangest of all. Even protected, madness nips at the edges of the others minds at my touch. But you are different. There is something about your mind that protects you from the madness.”
I recalled my strange conversation with the six-dimensional squid orgy in the Dreamlands. “Yeah, I get that a lot from you people.”
It reached into my mind, sifting through my memories. “I see! Your mind has been touched by the dweller of R’lyeh, and by a fragment of the one who is broken!” What? Chthluhu had been in my mind? Did that mean he really was on Earth?
I assume that the other one he referred to was Samantha. One of these days, I really needed to figure out what she really was. “Cool. Look, Mhar, or whatever your name is. Don’t you think it’s a little too early to wake up or something? Surely the stars aren’t right yet, or whatever. Why don’t you hit the snooze button on this whole thing and try waking up again in an aeon or two?”
“I believe I will enjoy digesting you for all of eternity, once this world has become my thrall. Do not worry, though. Once I have broken through your defenses, you will enjoy it as well.”
Yeah, I wasn’t into vore. “Anyone have any ideas how we kill a mountain?” I asked.
“HIT IT REALLY HARD!” Lenn suggested.
“Yeah, we’ll file that as plan B.” I shouldn’t joke. This was Lenn we were talking about. It could actually work. But I was terrified and if I didn’t joke, I’d panic.
No one else had anything. Well, almost no one. “You don’t remember this,” Kira said over the speaker, where everyone could hear. “But in the land of the dead, you kinda made a small star. If we could tap into that, then that might be enough to take down this thing.”
“I did what now?”
“You killed an army of daemons by forging a small star with your mind and hitting them with it.”
I blinked. “Well, yeah, I guess that’s probably a better plan than anything I can come up with. But I can’t do that now. No idea how I did it.”
“I think you’ll remember it after you kill yourself.”
“I have to do what now?”
“It’s only death. Paulie, how much diamond dust do you have?”
“After looting Karzoug, brah?” the tiefling responded. “Enough for like, four major resurrections, I think?”
“And would you be okay, as long as I promised I’d be right back?” I asked Aurora.
“Yes. I think so. As long as you return.”
It was a workable plan then. I could only see one problem. “But if we die, won’t we just end up back in the afterlife? What good would that do us here?”
“Well… there might be one way we’d be strong enough to resist the pull, at least long enough to stop this thing.”
It took me a few seconds to realize what she meant. She couldn’t be serious. But she was. “And Samantha doesn’t have any suggestions?”
“I haven’t been able to reach her. It might be a temporary side effect of earlier.”
Crap. Of course. “Does anyone have any other options?” I asked. Everyone shook their heads. Aurora still didn’t seem to have figured out what Kira meant. “Okay. I hate this plan. But it’s the only thing we’ve got, and the entire world is at stake.”
More than the entire world, potentially. Golarion was rumored to be the prison for Rovagug. If Mhar’s presence somehow eventually allowed him to get free, it was possible that the entire universe would be doomed. So, I really didn’t have any choice.
I spoke some of the most painful words I’ve ever had to speak. “Geo, please restrain Aurora. She’s not going to like what I’m about to do.”
Realization dawned on Aurora as Geo grabbed her. “NO!” she screamed.
I began casting the spell that would recombine Kira and me into a single being. Aurora begged and pleaded for me to stop, but I couldn’t. There was no other way. It had to be done.
I finished the spell and time stopped… but nothing had happened. The world grew dark as night, and I couldn’t move, or even speak, except to Kira and only within our brain. “What’s this?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Kira replied.
Then I heard a voice. “The moment I warned you of has come. Do you accept the pact, knowing that it will cause you great pain?”
Samantha? I couldn’t move my head, but I could see her within the edge of my vision. But who was she talking to? Surely she would have been in front of me if she wanted to talk to Kira or me.
“YES!” Aurora begged. “Please. Just save him!” What the hell was going on?
The sky was filled with light as a strange moon appeared above. I struggled to move, to stop Samantha from doing whatever it was she was going to do to Aurora. “Kyle! Stop!” Kira said in our mind. “Please, trust me! I think it’s going to be okay. Samantha would never hurt any of us.”
“Then what is she doing? And why Aurora?”
“I don’t know… Oh.”
“OH?! OH WHAT?!”
“She told me that she wanted to become your child’s godmother. This is what she meant.”
“Kira, I’m losing all patience. What is she doing?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I think that’s a Paleblood Moon.”
A what? “Kira, speak plainly. What is going on?”
“It’s a message, to let me know what’s she’s doing. I think she’s going to alter your offspring.”
“HOW?”
“I don’t think she means to make your child less human. He or she will be something more, instead.”
“More?!”
“I think your child is going to be something like a Great Old One.”
“How can he or she be human, yet also a Great Old One?!”
“I don’t know.”
“Give me one good reason not to stop it now.”
“Besides the fact that I trust Samantha? How about the fact that you can’t stop it? Aurora has already made the decision.”
Crap. I watched in horror as the stars wept, their light coalescing around Aurora and everything became darker, except for the light of that strange moon. Aurora screamed in agony as the light and then an equal measure of shadow moved through her.
Everything returned to normal and Aurora’s cries died down, but before time resumed, I heard a voice in my ear. “Don’t worry, it’s just the blessing of the stars and the cosmos. They’ll both be fine.”
“You and I are going to have a long conversation about this later,” I said to Samantha through clenched teeth as time resumed. But she was already gone.
And I couldn’t cast my spell anymore. I had forgotten it, somehow, and I had the feeling I’d never be able to figure it out again. Not that I could have cast it with an angry wife holding tight to me like that. How on Earth were we going to stop Mhar now?
Then, Geo answered my question. “Master Kyle! Look!” I turned to where he was pointing and saw a single golden beam of light streaming through the clouds about twenty feet from us.
At the base of the light was a golden sign. A Sunbro was offering his help. What the hell?! “Kira?!” I asked.
“It’s not me this time!” she protested.
“We need to touch the sign,” I said, not knowing what else to do. I made my way over, Aurora sticking next to me all the while – afraid I was going to try that spell again, maybe? – and reached down.
As soon as I touched the sign, I heard the familiar sound of a Dark Souls summon appearing, and the form of Samantha rose up from the signature, wreathed in golden light.
“WHO IS THAT?” Lenn asked.
“An old friend,” I said. “I think.”
Samantha just smirked.
“Can she help us?” Lenntu asked.
Samantha shrugged, then reached out and touched my forehead. Immediately, I felt her voice within my mind. “I cannot stay long in this solid a form without attracting attention. Even with Mhar here. But you already have everything you need, from the wards I stole from that meddlesome moth to the power of friendship. All I needed to come here to do was to show you how to use it.”
“Wards? What?”
“Desna thought she could bind Mhar here even if he awoke, so she warded the entire mountain. Six wards, each with a fragment of her power. She was wrong, of course. He would have broken free even if they had slowed him a bit. So I stole their power and delivered it to you, quietly, and in a way you’d recognize.”
“The ponies!” I gasped.
“Exactly. And now you only need to follow these instructions.”
“And do what, exactly?”
She gave me a slasher’s grin. “You’re going to… KILL…. the Mountain.”
And then she was gone. But I had the information. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I shouted.
“What is it?” Aurora asked.
“You’ll see in a moment. I have to cast one more spell.” She eyed me suspiciously. “Not that one. A different one.” I turned to Paulie. “I’m going to need a bunch of that diamond dust.”
“Sure, brah. What do you want me to do with it?”
“Dump about a third of it in a pile here,” I pointed, indicating a flat area of stone. “Alright, stand back for a second.”
“Righteous,” the tiefling said, stepping back. Once he was clear, I cast my spell, fabricating the diamond dust into an insanely intricate spell circle and then solidifying it into the rock itself as a single, solid diamond.
The circle was divided into six pieces. Inside each, at the center of the wedge, was a symbol, with each wedge having a different symbol. “Lenn, I need you to stand here, on the Balloons.” I pointed as I spoke. He seemed like he was going to ask me what a balloon was, but he understood what I meant. “Lenn, you represent laughter. The ability to chase away all fear with nothing but a hearty chuckle at the darkness.” As he stood upon the mark, a glowing sigil shaped like a balloon appeared on his forehead.
I then took Aurora and had her stand upon the Butterfly. “What does this one mean?” she asked.
“Aurora, you represent kindness, the words of a friend that wash away all burdens.” Next was Geo, who stood upon the rainbow. “Geo, you represent Loyalty, the conviction to do whatever it takes to be there for those you care about.” I then had Lenntu stand upon the Apple. “You represent Honesty, the truth between friends that fosters trust.”
“Which am I, brah?” Paulie asked.
I motioned towards the Star. “Paulie, you represent the Magic of friendship, the bond between everyone.” I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. The Steward of the Skein was there, watching us curiously. I couldn’t afford to dally. I stepped upon the Diamond. “I represent Generosity, the willingness to give for others, to friends and friends to be alike.”
The circle glowed as I entered the last point and magical light swirled around us. Mhar’s voice spoke in the air around us. “You think you can win?”
“We already have,” I said.
As I spoke, the swirling lights enveloped us and drew the sigils from our foreheads. Then the light shot into the clouds and disappeared. “That was it? You disappoint me. I almost thought you had some kind of actual plan,” Mhar gloated.
I replied with only four words. “Firing Orbit Friendship Cannon.”
From the sky above the mountain came a cascading rainbow. It struck the mountain with an intense amount of power, and I’m pretty sure the impact was felt as far away as Magnimar. It was possible that the light show was visible as far as the planet’s curvature would allow.
Mhar’s voice screamed in pain and then was silent, and the Old One was no more, the threat ended once and for all by the power of friendship and his soul, or whatever it was he had, dragged to the halls of Pharasma by her herald.
We made our way back to Chadwick’s base camp, where we were cheered and welcomed by everyone. Morgiv was surprised to learn that I had taken the mantle of Runelord, but seemed cautiously hopeful when I told him my plans for the interim government and where I was leaning for the long term version. It didn’t hurt that I was appointing him to the city’s ruling council to represent the common folk, along with Chadwick as the Voidstrife representative and representatives to be appointed by Magnimar and Absalom at a later date.
That night, once we were alone, a tearful Aurora finally revealed her pregnancy to me and told me about the pact she had made with Samantha. It was much as I’d been told. Samantha would become our child’s godmother, and what she had done had indeed been some kind of blessing, but an adult’s body couldn’t handle that kind of power flowing through it, supposedly. Hence the pain.
Samantha swore upon it when we spoke to her a few days later. She apologized for not telling me, but Aurora had asked her not to, since she didn’t want to tell me until after we’d dealt with Karzoug. I let it lie for now, but I would watch our child carefully.
We also decided on a name for our kid. If he was a boy, we would name him Conor, after my grandfather. If she was a girl, she would be Lyriana, named after Aurora’s maternal grandmother.
Lenn told us that now that we were done, he wanted to settle down and make sausage and hang out with hookers. His words, not mine. I suggested something a bit more, and he loved the idea. So it was that the first chapter of the Adventurer’s Guild was founded in the city of Magnimar, with the blessing of the Lord Mayor. It was a place where adventurers could get together, learn from each other and take on contracts from people all around.
Lenn became the guildmaster and head chef. He hired a large number of prostitutes to run the guild building, which was something like an inn or boarding house. He seemed to love the idea of taking young adventurers under his wing.
Paulie talked with the Pathfinder Society, and they were very interested in assigning a team to travel with him to old Thassilonian sites in search of more information about his past. One of the Rangers went with him, hoping to find more information about the fates of the other Runelords. We definitely wanted to stop them before they could manage to return, if at all possible.
Geo disappeared one night, leaving only a note that said, “I apologize, but I must depart to fulfill my end of the bargain. Please keep an eye on Lenn for me. I sincerely hope that each of you has glorious and joyful lives.” I made a note to assign a Ranger team to search for him and keep an eye on him. The Cult of the Dual God could become a problem one day.
Lenntu seemed at a loss as far as what to do, so I offered him command of the Rangers, which he accepted. He suggested that he work with Lenn to keep an eye out for any adventurers who showed promise and recruit them. I liked it and gave him my approval.
Viorian Dekanti, the woman who had been controlled by the sword, was grateful to us for saving her. Especially Ayruzi. Upon learning what I had become, she was wary at first, but as she learned more, she decided that she would give me a chance to see what I would do as a Runelord.
She then asked if I would be willing to help her seek out the other Runelords. She wanted to find them and end them before they could do to anyone else what was done to her. So I offered her a position with the Rangers, which she accepted just as soon as I explained their mission.
As an aside, I’ve noticed in the weeks since then that she and Lenntu seem to be in the beginnings of a romance. Good for them. They both deserve happiness.
At Ayruzi’s offer, Aurora and I traveled to Elysium – the plane of freedom and righteousness – and spent a few days having a true and proper honeymoon in a cottage beside a beautiful lake. While there, we met another few of Aurora’s celestial ancestors, who were extremely happy to learn the news of Aurora’s pregnancy.
Before we left, I took the opportunity to track down a band of Azatas and hired them to come to Xin’Shalast and hunt down anything remaining in the city that could be a danger to the common folk. While they weren’t big on any kind of authority, they seemed to like that I was thinking of the safety of those who couldn’t protect themselves and were thus completely willing to come to my aid.
All the while, I spent time studying Karzoug’s spellbook. It was an amazing find. Inside was every spell whose existence I’ve ever heard of, as well as a number that no one had even speculated could exist. But most importantly, he had the spell I needed, the one that would allow me to go home. And since I was the one casting it, I could travel back and forth pretty much at will, which meant I could take care of my duties here while still spending most of my time back on Earth.
We made sure everything was in order and left instructions for while we were gone, then Aurora and I prepared to teleport. “Will we be arriving at your parents’ house?” Aurora asked. She seemed nervous to meet them.
“No. It could be a problem if I suddenly appear out of nowhere. Especially if they’ve sold the place. But I know somewhere secluded where we can arrive. And if it’s early enough in the day, maybe I’ll show you around Tucson for a bit before we head over, since I imagine they’ll still be at work.”
Back when I was in the hospital, I found this secluded little area just outside the building. No one went there, so I would go there for some seclusion when I’d had enough of doctors or nurses bothering me. It would be the perfect spot to teleport to, and I knew it well enough that we could teleport there straight away.
It had been at least ten years, maybe more. But it was finally here. I would see my family this very day. But I’d been through so much. Would they even recognize me? Would they be mad I had been gone? Or would it be as if I’d never left? I was terrified. But I had Aurora with me, and I knew that would never change. I could do this.
Times have changed and times are strange
Here I come, but I ain’t the same
Mama, I’m coming home
Mama, mama, I’m coming home
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
The first thing I noticed when arriving was the rubble, and the fragments of police tape. I looked around, and even from where I was, I could tell that something big had happened. There were signs that there had been an explosion here. Maybe less than six months ago, if I had to guess.
I heard a twig snap behind me, and heard a voice. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the glint of metal from some kind of handgun. “Hands where I can see them! No sudden movements. Tell me now which side you’re on or I swear I will blow your head off!”
What the hell?!
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