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DKP 8-8 A war that never ended
🕑 Added 2022-04-29 18:25:47 +0000 UTCGersius sat on the edge of the bed, his mind in a black cloud as Lilly and Thayle fawned over the unconscious Sarah. The battle against Whiteford had been an overwhelming success and ended the war in the course of one day. During that confrontation, they learned that their enemies had united to build weapons specifically to slay dragons. Scouts found a massive camp building the weapons, and Alayse destroyed it, but it turned out that camp was just one of many. Whiteford turned up to the battle with some of the deadly devices, and it was only through a clever strategy of Alayse that disaster was averted.
They didn't know why the enemy had captured the bridges over the river to the empire. They thought it was to prepare for the army to march across when in actuality, it was to sneak some of the weapons into the empire. A cluster of these hidden devices fired on Sarah as she flew home, and one of them got lucky. In a terrible twist of fate, she fell from the sky and landed on the spear, driving it through her body. By the time Lilly pulled it out, her aura was almost gone, and it took the healing power of dozens to stabilize her. She was awake just long enough to say she was very tired and change forms to human. Lilly carried her the rest of the way home, running on the ground to avoid more spears. Gersius ordered the countryside searched for miles, and a dozen such hidden weapons were discovered. Their devices were captured, and all of it was on the way to Calathen, where it could be studied in great depth.
He needed to know how those weapons were inchanted because Sarah was still asleep days later. It wasn't uncommon for a person snatched from the jaws of death to be asleep for a day or two and then weak for a few more. Gersius himself had barely been conscious after his resurrection by Lilly and couldn't walk for nearly five more. Repeated efforts to heal her had been made, especially by the priests of Vellis, who were able to say the wound had not yet fully recovered. There was a magical element to the injury, so weavers and shapers were brought in to try and unravel it. They were perplexed, to say the least, using magics to try and discover the nature of the lingering effect but insisted that it was divine in nature. If they could study the spears, they might learn more, but they doubted it was a weave that caused the harm.
In desperation, he looked to a more radical choice, using a focus of Vellus to perform a healing right. This would allow the god himself to work the healing directly, and Sarah would almost certainly be found worthy. The order of Vellis kept their seal of healing in the city, and it was sent for hours ago. For Sarah's sake, they would remove it from its sacred vault and evoke the god himself to intervene.
“She will be fine,” Thayle said as Lilly lay across Sarah’s chest. “The divines will unravel this spell.”
“I just want her to wake up,” Lilly sniffed. “I want our Sarah back.”
Gersius turned around to put a hand on Lilly’s waist and give her a firm rub.
“The priests of Vellis will be here any moment with their seal, and she will be restored,” he said to support her in her time of need. They waited and talked an hour more until, at last, the priests arrived with a very nervous-looking woman at the lead.
“I am Stephany, high priestess of Vellis and charged with keeping the holy seal. I come to give you terrible news,” the woman said as a tear formed in her eyes. “Our seal has been stolen, and a fake left in its place.”
“Stolen?” Gersius said in disbelief. “When? How?” he demanded.
“We don't know,” the woman said with a terribly hurt expression. “We never have cause to use it, and the last time its power was evoked was years ago. It could have been stolen even before the Doan began their march east, for all we know. The doors to the vault were always heavily guarded, and we are questioning every person who has stood guard in the last few years.”
“So Sarah isn’t going to be healed?” Lilly asked with pleading eyes.
Gersius got up to take Stephany from the room as Lilly fell into a terrible fit of cries and wails. He shut the door and stood the woman in the hall to ask his questions.
“Why was this fake not discovered soon?” he asked.
“It is kept in a vault, and no one is allowed to so much as touch it. The high members like myself occasionally are allowed to pray before it, but the deception is perfect in every way,” the woman replied. “It resembles the ring so exactly that it could only have been made with skilled hands. It is even enchanted to give off a soft glow to appear to be magical. We have asked the weavers to look at the device, and they say the glow is divine, not magical.”
Gersius growled as his blood started to boil over the news. It was clear who was responsible for this fake, and the priests of Gorrin had much to answer for. It also proved they had been acting potentially years in advance, laying the groundwork to cripple the rival faiths. Astikars ring was gone, and now so too was Vellis. He had a sneaking suspicion there were more fakes yet to be discovered and dismissed the woman with a command to keep him informed of any developments.
He returned to the room and found his wives in a terrible state as Lilly pleaded with Sarah to wake up. Despite the pain of the moment, he had to pull Thayle aside and ask her to reach out to her order.
“I need you to order your holy seal brought out,” Gersius said.
“Gersius, I don't think our seal would work. Ulustrah isn't a goddess of healing,” Thayle insisted.
“It isn’t that,” Gersius said and ran a hand through his hair. “I suspect your seal was stolen long ago. And you are currently protecting a fake.”
Thayle was silent, so he went on to explain the perfect copy left for the priests of Vellis to guard in ignorance and his suspicion that every major faith was likely compromised. Thayle nodded and then hurried from the room, desperate to reach a scryer and get a message to the rose temple. Gersius turned back to Lilly as she sobbed in remorse; there was nothing more to do but wait.
Hours went by, and he was on the terrace sitting on a bench with Lilly on his lap. She hadn't said much of anything for a while but finally began to ask about the seals. Now that she understood that the other divines had similar devices, she wondered did Balisha have one too?
“I suppose she must have,” Gersius replied as he stroked her side. “But it was probably lost long ago. For all we know, it was thrown into the sea or buried by some angry mob.”
“Could they have destroyed it?” Lilly asked.
“I do not think so,” Gersius replied. “The seals are made of a metal only the divines could shape. They were made in the heavens and gifted to the world in the age when the Gods could walk the land. The promise is that we will have access to their power so long as their seal remains in the world.”
“So, since we can use Balisha's blessings, her seal must be here someplace,” Lilly said.
“It has to be,” Gersius replied softly. “But only she knows where it lays.”
“Do you think we could heal Sarah if we had it?” Lilly asked as she clung tighter to his chest.
“Balisha is a decent healing power,” Gersius said as he considered the possibility. “And she is close at heart to dragons. So I would not be surprised if we could.”
“Then we need to find her seal so this never happens again,” Lilly said.
Gersius had no idea where they would even begin looking for such a thing. Balisha's order had been torn down, and efforts were made to erase it. She hadn't had any priests for thousands of years to keep records of where such items might be. What happened to her seal, or even when it was lost, was a matter of ancient history. He wasn't even aware of the location of the seal of Astikar, and he had seen that several times himself.
“Assuming that was the real one,” Lilly said as she read his mind.
That was a point to consider, especially since the one time he had seen it used was almost fifteen years ago. It had simply been on display for ceremonial purposes all the rest of the time. It could easily have been a fake, but why steal the fake at the outset of the war?
It could only mean the real one was still there until recently when the Father Abbot had to flee. Where it had gone was a mystery, but he suspected they were all together someplace. This plan had been going on for years, carefully executed to make the way ready, but for what? His thoughts were interrupted when they both felt Thayle approaching in great distress.
“Can you hear me yet?” Thayle cried over the bind.
“We can hear you,” Gersius replied.
“You were right. Our seal is gone!” Thayle cried. “It was replaced by a fake so perfect the people told to inspect couldn't tell it wasn't the right one. They had to try and use it to find out it had no divine power.”
“Then it is as I feared,” Gersius sighed. “We have been played for fools.”
“How?” Lilly asked over the bind so Thayle would hear.
“Lilly, Whiteford was a clever ruse to draw us out,” Gersius explained. “But you were never the target.”
“But I was,” Lilly insisted. “All the reports said they were boasting they would take my head.”
“Those declarations were meant to draw Sarah out,” Gersius growled. “I believe our enemy knew she would come in your place, and they positioned the hidden weapons ahead of time.”
“How can you be so sure of that?” Thayle asked. “And what does it have to do with the seals?”
“I am not certain what role the seals play in all this, but I suspect they were used to craft the spear that crippled Sarah,” Gersius said. “We have seen several times now where a weave was used to cripple a dragon. Lilly was affected by one when she grabbed the sword in Shadros's cave, and then Sarah and Lilly were struck when they flew into the keep to rescue you, Thayle. They also know how to bind divine power into glyphs that can block divine power from flowing.”
“Like they did at the prison camps,” Thayle said. “Do you think she used the seal of Ulustrah to block the goddess's own power?”
“I have my suspicions,” Gersius replied. “And getting back to the spears, why make them so long if you had intended to kill Lilly with them? Lilly is much smaller than Sarah. A weapon of half the size would have sufficed.”
“You’re right,” Thayle gasped over the bind. “They were after Sarah all along. They are trying to strip of us our dragons.”
“They tried to steal Lilly and assassinate Sarah, but Alayse and Jessivel spoiled the plan,” Gersius said. “They struck at Numidel next and were successful. Since they failed at the first attempt at Sarah, they used the approaching army of Whiteford to boast that they would kill Lilly. They were praying on Sarah's pride and power, hoping she would come out in Lilly's place. They took those bridges to slip weapons across and hide them in the trees, hoping for a clear shot at her. We must have gotten lucky on our flight in, and her landing to walk up to the bridge probably saved us. However, she flew right over them on the way back, and they took their shot.”
“Which means they will come for me next,” Lilly said.
“Or shadros,” Gesius thought. “Thayle, wherever you are, you must go to your army and put Shadros under strict guard. He is not to fly anywhere unless ordered and tell him to stay in his dragon form. He is just as likely to be attacked as Lilly is.”
“I will go right now,” Thayle said. “But what do you plan to do?”
“Something I have not wanted to think about,” Gersius replied. “I believe the man who made those fakes is currently rotting in a cell.”
“You mean the forge master of Gorrin?” Thayle asked.
“He is divinely gifted with skill and can shape the power divine into objects like a shaper, Gersius replied. “He will know why Sarah isn’t awake yet, and he might even know where the seals are being kept.”
“How will you get him to talk?” Lilly asked.
Gersius didn't want to think about that answer. Not long ago, he had suffered under the hands of a man who wanted answers. But, though his anger for the order of Gorrin was great, he refused to let that rage cloud his judgment. He would not stoop to the same tactics as the Father Abbot and torture a man for his secrets.
“I still have a vial of blessed holy water,” Thayle suggested. “Perhaps if Sarah drank it, we might be able to break this curse.”
“Save that for a final attempt,” Gersius replied. “Let me talk to the forge master first and see what he has to say for himself.”
“Can I come with you?” Lilly asked.
“No,” Gersius replied with a serious tone. “Sarah is as vulnerable as she will ever get. She can be killed far too easily in her human form, and our enemies are sure to know she is still alive. One of us must be at her side at all times to guard her just in case they try to finish her off. I will go and speak to the man alone. Perhaps we can find some common ground of faith.”
“I doubt it,” Thayle said. “But I wish you luck.”
Gersius sighed as he doubted it too, but what choice did he have? Sarah was under some kind of magical wound, and the seals were their best hope to cure it. If the forge master was the one who crafted the fakes, then he might just know where the real ones were.
He left Lilly with a dozen priests to guard Sarah as he made his way to the lowest halls of the palace where old prisons were constructed. He hated that such places were necessary and hoped to use them as sparingly as possible. To soften the blow, he had ordered them scrubbed clean and made as comfortable as possible, refusing to behave like a tyrant. As he arrived in the lower halls, he came face to face with guards meant to protect the prisoner of note.
They saluted as Gersius walked passed and made his way down a long hall of sturdy doors. Near the end were five men in full armor standing before an iron door. Gersius bid the men open the door and stepped into an inner chamber. A wall of bars separated him from a cell that contained a simple bed, a table, a chair, and a man with a robust frame. He sat on the edge of the bed, looking grim but smiling when he saw Gersius.
“Has the day of judgment come at last?” the man asked without getting up.
Gersius walked to the bars in silence, taking a moment to check his anger. He wanted to enter the cell and beat this man near to death with his bare hands, but that would not be a just end. The forge master waited patiently for a response as Gersius finally decided to speak.
“Where are the seals?”
The look on the man’s face changed to one of humor as she finally chose to rise and approach the bars to speak face to face.
“So you have discovered our little ruse,” the man laughed. “Is it starting to come clear yet? Do you see how much we control despite your efforts?”
“If you had any control, you wouldn't be behind those bars, and I would not need to waste time speaking to you,” Gersius replied.
“Is that so?” the man laughed. “Do you really think we didn't know you would get this far? Do you think we haven't planned for your mad rise to power? It was one of the prices demanded for what we wanted, a proper dragon knight to lead an empire.”
“You didn’t get a proper dragon knight,” Gersius argued. “You got two.”
“Oh, yes, the woman,” the forge master said with a nod. “I admit she was unexpected but a valuable insight into the truth. It proves the divines are worried about our plans that they are scrambling to alter things to counter them.”
“You think you can outsmart the divines?” Gersius asked.
“I think we can do far more than that,” the forge master replied.
“Why?” Gersius asked as he started to pace and show his irritation. “Why would you turn against the divines you worshiped?”
“Turn against them?” the man scoffed. “We are trying to restore them and the balance that once existed in the world.”
“Do not waste my time with riddles,” Gersius growled. “Nothing you have done has brought any measure of peace or balance to the world. It has cost thousands of lives and destroyed the harmony of homes across the land.”
“That was your doing, not ours,” the man replied. “You just had to go looking for that dragon. And now look what your stubborn desire has wrought.”
“Don't avoid the question,” Gersius said as he stopped pacing to face the man. “You have turned against your divine, and I know you have because he stands behind me!” he shouted that last point with the dragon voice to make his point as firmly as possible. “When you and your traitorous ilk sent the civilians in a massive militia, the divines showed their sacred symbols in support of me. Gorrin was there, as were many of the even the lesser ones. Your patron supports me, yet you do not.”
“My patron has chosen a path of destruction because his hands are tied,” the forge master snarled. “We seek to restore the balance so that the Earth Mother might lift the restrictions preventing our gods from directly touching the world.”
“By seeing it burn again?” Gersius asked.
“By stopping it from burning again!” he shouted. “Do you think the first war is over, and this is the second one? Are you too blind by your arrogance to see the war never ended? Solesta isn't dead, and Balisha isn't reining as the champion. No, your goddess is a shattered and broken thing, with scarcely enough power to grant you a few blessings. If her victory was the outcome that should have been, then why has the earth mother punished the heavens and the world for it?”
Gersius took a step back as he considered that point of view. It was true Balisha was very weak, and the Earth Mother had punished the word severely, but could he be right about the rest? Did the wrong side win the war, and was the world lost because of it?
“No!” Gersius shouted and raised a hand to deflect the man's verbal arrows. “I have communed with Balisha a hundred times, and I know her heart to be pure. She wishes only for men and dragons to share in a harmony that would see them both grow strong.”
“Weak,” the man said in return as he smiled. “They will grow weaker and weaker until the dragons die out, and then men will soon follow. The cycle will collapse, and the world of the Earth Mother will die.”
“What are you talking about?” Gersius asked with a hint of fear to see the man's aura flash with the truth. He was either telling the truth directly, or he very deeply believed it to be.
“You see, this is why we work in the shadows,” the forge master said. “Our divines are trapped on a path of self-destruction, and we realize that matters must be taken to avert the disaster. The plan is so simple yet so tragically hard to pull off. You don't understand the relationship between men and dragons and the reasons we both exist. The Earth Mother made us to fill our roles and, through us, create a balance in the world, but Balisha's dream destroys that balance. It removes the roles we were meant to play and creates an entirely new one. So long as Balisha is still in power, the balance can never be fixed. Her return to the world is the bell that sounds the end, and we have been trying for years to stop it.”
“Well, I hope you can still hear those bells,” Gersius said. “Because her faith is spreading. I already have temples founded in other cities, and her priests now number over a thousand.”
“Then you will be the harbinger of doom for a world poisoned by Balisha's vain dream. The other divines were punished for going along with it, and now they believe that by restoring her to full glory, they can somehow fix what they did. No, you can't fix the problem by restoring Balisha, but you can by restoring the true goddess of dragons.”
“Solesta is dead,” Gersius said flatly. “And she is never coming back.”
“Is that so?” the man asked with a smile. “Would you stake your life on it?”
“My life is already staked on it!” Gersius shouted.
“Then you are an enemy of all that is good,” the forge master said and stepped away from the bars. “And my brothers will go on without me to defeat your plans.”
“Haven't you seen enough of your plans come to ruin to know you can't defeat the prophecy?” Gersius asked. “You have tried repeatedly to alter the path, but all you ever do is guide my steps to the next destination. I know I was sent on all those military assignments in the hopes that I would die in combat, but all you did was train me to lead armies. You tried to interfere with Lilly and delivered her right to my hands. You then tried to lure me into a trap at Whiteford that did nothing but open my eyes to the greater danger and help unite Lilly and I as a one. You drove me to the temple of Ulustrah and laid the foundation for them being the strength of my army. You drove me from that temple into the path of Numidel and Sarah. You have driven me to every step of the prophecy, yet you still dare to believe you can turn its path?”
“As I said from the beginning, we knew you would get this far,” he replied. “But your time is running out, and soon the Doan will march. Let’s see how much power you truly have when hundreds of thousands come swarming over your land.”
Gersius closed his eyes and let out a deep breath as he fought to avoid becoming angry. This man truly believed he was doing the right thing, and as such, his aura reflected it. But Gersius knew the divines were behind his efforts, and he put his faith in them. Right now, the man's reasons for what he was doing didn't matter. All that mattered were the seals.
“Where are the seals?” he asked again.
“And you have come back to that,” the forge master said. “What prompted you to seek out the seals suddenly? Is somebody perhaps injured in a way you can't manage to heal?”
Gersius grit his teeth as the man started to laugh. He struggled with the anger raging inside as his wife languished in a sleep induced by a magical wound. It was the priests of Gorrin who wrought this curse, and now their leader was going to tell him what he wanted to know.
“I will ask you again,” Gersius said calmly. “Where are the seals?”
“Where you are too afraid to go,” the man replied. “Far to the west where the Doan took its first trophy from the empire.”
Gersius's eyes flared with anger as a smile spread over the forge master's face. The doomed city trampled in the path of the Doan in the early days of the war and where he believed his sister fell. It was his first true failure in the conflict, and now it was a source of much pain. If it weren't for the flash of truth in the man's aura, he would have called him a liar, but now he had to face the facts. That placed them behind the enemy's lines in a city probably heavily fortified and ready. He would have to launch a desperate campaign to take it back and suffer terrible casualties. Even if he was successful, could it be done in time to help Sarah? Her condition didn't seem to be getting worse, but surely it wasn't getting better. How long could she languish in this sleep before time finally claimed her?
“Why would you bring them there?” Gersius asked more to stall for time than because he cared to know.
“Do you think that site was chosen at random to be the first major city west of the border forts?” the forge master asked. “All the great orders have had leaders working for generations to bring this moment about. That city was built for the Doan and for the moment yet to come. There is a cathedral to my order built over an ancient structure made through the power of the Earth Mother herself. It is here you will find your precious seals, in the dark where the secrets are kept.”
Gersius studied the man’s aura as it flashed with truth and decided to ask why he was telling him all this.
“Because I want you to risk going,” the man replied. “I want you to throw away your lives in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable. As I said, we always knew you would get this far, and we know you are going to that temple. I have no reason to hide it from you. I want you to try and fail.”
Once again, his aura flashed with the truth, causing Gersius to turn away. His blood boiled with anger to think this man was so calm about his crimes.
“Is it one of the dragons?” the man asked. “Which one is dying to our poison arrows? You won’t be able to save her. I made sure the enchantments were strong.”
Red fire blazed Gersius's eyes as he stretched out a hand and created a floating dragon's claw just the other side of the bars. He grabbed the forge master around the chest and lifted him from the ground as he squeezed. He wanted to hear the bones break and see the look of terror as the pressure crushed him to death. The forge master cried out as Gersius willed more and more power into the grip, then he heard Lilly in his head.
“I hate it when you’re angry,” she said. “I can feel your pain when you are. Please let it go for me.”
The hand vanished, and the man crashed to the floor, rolling about in pain. Gersius stormed out of the room and ordered the guards to heal the man before heading away. He had almost lost control and killed a man in a blind rage for revenge. Thankfully sweet Lilly was a guiding light to his heart, and her words from long ago brought him back.
Now he had to face the path laid out for him. To save Sarah, he had to risk going where the enemy was waiting. There wasn't a choice to make, and he trusted that this would be one more step of the prophecy as the enemy guided the way.
