21st of Obsidian
The two winged Avar looked out from their places of meditation. They silently looked at each other and a multitude of words flowed between them without a sound. Their clothing, a light tan, almost white, hung on their frames with meticulous care. One wore a few pieces of leather, a coat to protect from the elements and sandals to protect the feet. The other wore more leather, otter, mule and dog. The shirt that clung tightly to her frame was made out of supple giant tarantula chitin, as were her sandals. They sat cross-legged on the floor in a meditative position, one they were long-since accustomed to assuming. They'd been known to spend months in that position, and prior to the great release, even years. Imprisonment had taught them much as a race. Patience was one of the things they had learned. Or at least most of them. Anger was the other.
Thankfully not all of them.
The dwarves were known to them nearly fully now, and the pair had decided it was time to set and bind the geas. The awakening of terrible purpose, of devotion to a cause.
One of them was smoothing the floors near the depot when they first reached out to him with their minds. He was the one that radiated order. The one they had been told to find. Erane reached out a hand to Fiya and squeezed it ever so slightly. A physical touch that gave more than reassurance. Fiya concentrated, focusing on the dwarf and sending out the greeting in her thoughts.
"In the name of Order I greet you, son of the mountain. By the eternal warmth of Zirulundonir may you long live."
She had expected a response, but found none. She reached out again with her mind and found the presence of the dwarf, but when she tried to inspect it closer walls blocked her way, as hard as stone. She retreated in confusion and spoke with Erane again: "Sister, how can we fulfill our purpose with these iblith if we cannot speak with them?"
The prompt response and feeling of reassurance came. "The burden is placed upon you. You will find a way."
She returned her gaze to the dwarf and to her surprise he no longer worked but looked curiously at her, one eyebrow raised. He nodded once and returned to his work, calmly and slowly, but with occasional quick furtive glaces in their direction. He finished the piece of stone he was working on and stood, stretching his back from long work on the floor.
"About time I take a break I think." he said aloud, to no one in particular, and strode unabashed to sit against one of the pillars holding up the depot. His eyes closed as if resting, but his breathing did not slow.
Fiya tried again, closing her eyes and focusing.
"Greetings we give to you, child of stone. Can you hear me?"
She waited and again no response. She was about to try again when her ears caught the faintest of whispers.
"I can hear you lass. What do the Faenari-iyal want of us?"
Surprised her eyes opened and her wings behind her stirred as if she might suddenly take flight. Ruffling her feathers and crossing her wing-tips again she resumed meditative pose.
"Truly you can hear us then? How is it you know of us?"
Another slight pause and then quietly. "Aye, I can hear you, though as if from a great distance, and only faintly. As for the rest, well, I too am not only what I seem to be."
"Then we apologize for the deception that we have maintained. As you may have guessed then, merchants we are not. But explain your riddle to us. We had thought that such knowledge of our name before the imprisonment had all but perished from the records of your ... race."
The thought that had been sent had contained in it a note of condescention, as of a superior looking down on a lesser, but despite this his reponse was calm.
"We are a mortal race, yes, but our gods are not and they still deign to speak to some from time to time, when occasion or need arises."
"Ah, so you ARE one of the appointed."
"So it would seem."
"Then I am vessel for a message which is sent for you."
"Say on then. I hear and listen."
"That you were sent here as we were I no longer doubt, but you should know the specifics. I shall use imagery as it conveys what is necessary in a faster fashion."
Paulus nodded then relaxed into the wall supporting him as images flashed into his awareness and he saw The war from it's inception.
In the beginning the universe was, and was not, for it was empty and void. Then in a supreme act the void was ripped asunder and matter sprang into being. With it came immaterial things, beings of thought and action. Intelligences that saw the chaos that had been created, and with it their own creation. These intelligences were beings of Power and began to organize and order the chaos they had found, and in so doing wrought more than they had intended, for other beings of Power sprang up to oppose them. So were the gods of Order and Chaos formed.
Order formed worlds and galaxies, while chaos sought to destroy and lay waste to what they had created, for it was anti-thetical to them. One such place was Smaksmo Udo, the Universes of Soul. Chaos took hold and the earth boiled, a smoking billowing sphere travelling through space, but Order took it and carefully cooled the fires until water condensed from the clouds, cooling the earth and creating rivers, lakes and oceans. They created life in an attempt to unbalance their foes and so created the immortal races.
The Avatars and Avarii were their children. In a twisted parody the forces of Chaos did the same, creating Chaos lords and Demons, and the war began anew, forces and their children fighting on the cooling planet. The immortal races did not age but could be killed, and to tilt the balance in their favor the gods of chaos created the first undead from the battlefields of the infant planet. The forces of order were driven back by the dark tide and might have lost had not a new force intervened. In their constant struggle neither Order nor Chaos considered the forces of balance and neutrality and they worked now to restore the imbalance. The younger races were created, some more for good, others for evil, but still immortal. Avari, goblins, elves, and others. Then further still the mortal races were created to help the balance, dwarves and humans among them. These living races were hated and hunted by the undead, but valor and skill won out where force could not. The undead were thrown back, maintaining an uneasy balance. And the world entered the first age. Other creations came to light then as well, lying dormant in the earth, hidden snares and and pitfalls for the new races to discover. Some ugly and evil, others less so, but then were discovered the first dragons, and titans, the constructs of metal and great beasts that roamed the earth.
The battle began in earnest again, the gods taking less of a part directly as they moved their wars on to other planes of combat, content to watch and occasionally help their children. The forces of creation quickly gained an advantage again as the demons struck terror in the mortal races that the undead could not best. And in an act of defiance the gods of order struck at the demons themselves, raining molten metal from the skies and imprisoning and sealing their enemies deep in the earth. Chaos too struck a hearty blow, banishing the Avarii from the surface. His vision focused on a portion of the world, the mountains where the two Avarii and the dwarves now resided had once been a mighty stronghold of order. Paulus saw an ancient demon attack with the forces of chaos and the ensuing carnage covered the mountains. The demon, a lietenant of significant power, lay waste to the inhabitants, avarii, dwarf, elf, human and kobold alike, until a blue blazing meteor struck him and many of his minions in a flash, trapping him in the earth beneath. His vision expanded again as he saw time pass.
Their elder children soon began to fade, unable to keep pace with the younger races and for a time Avatars and Chaos Lords faded from the earth. Peace gradually was restored and order regained a semblance of strength.
It was with the awakening of one of the Elder demons by the goblins that the war was rekindled and soon the gods of chaos had been invoked again and their attentions turned again to the planet they had helped to create.
As his vision faded to blackness he heard the voice again, from far away, but with a melodic timbre.
"And so we find ourselves once more in the struggle. But much has changed. The Avatar and avarii, long imprisoned have been altered and no longer serve any master but their own ideals. There are few of us now who seek out our old allies and renew the bonds once forged, and fewer still of our allies remember or haven't been corrupted themselves. The kobolds and elves have degenerated into savagery. The humans are an individual lot, as are the dwarves now. Some serving order and others chaos. For this reason we have been careful. And observant. And the forces of chaos are loose again, or quickly becoming so. We feared the worst when we heard of your settlement here. We had concern that you had been tainted and were seeking to undo Damel Werecloisters' imprisonment."
The name sent an icy shudder through the dwarf's spine, but he did not know why.
"We see now that you are not here to do so willingly, though if you are not careful that may happen in any case. We urge you to take precautions and will do our best to guide and help where we may do so without attracting attention. That above all we must do. Were our people even to hear of us we fear little good would come of it."
A final whisper in response indicated that the dwarf would keep silent on the matter and he stood, brushing off the dust and said to no one in particular. "Best I get back to work. Stone's not going to smooth itself."
And the two avarii in the depot looked as they had these past many months, unruffled in expression and almost entirely unmoving, except for the slightest of smiles that graced one of their faces.
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Topic: Geshud Osod, the Fortress of Bones (Community/Story in Legendary Lands) (Read 101527 times)