“It’s the last of its kind,” Lilith said. “Creatures like this used to live peacefully with the rest of the planet’s native species. That all changed when my former colleague, Laughter, arrived. They were too weak to survive her experiments, and most of them died out. Except for the General here. He managed to survive somehow, and, due to his intelligence, Laughter was able to use him to control the rest of the population, which he’s been doing ever since.”
“So he’s the puppet master,” Astrid said. “It’s with him that this planet’s guilt truly lies.”
“Fool!” the thing shrieked. “I am the one who makes this planet great. I am a leader of armies. I will destroy—” but before it could finish talking, Astrid dropped it in the dust.
Hannah looked down at it. “Your apocalypse failed. Your days of leading armies, of terrifying worlds, of being an insufferable douche nugget are over. But there’s one last thing you can do for us. You can die.”
She looked at Astrid who let the power of the Well fill her. She raised her boot high, then carried out Hannah’s sentence.
They stared at one another—finally secure that Irth would live another day. But that still didn’t solve the problem of how they were going to get home.
Abbey looked around them. Except for the ruined temple, there was nothing within sight but barren red wasteland. She had spent so much of her life surrounded by vibrant blues and greens and whites—she shuddered at the thought of dying here in the dryness.
Coming to Hyrrheim was a risk, she knew that. It was a risk she would take a thousand times before she let someone threaten her world.
She looked to the others to see what the plan was when a sound like thunder split the air. They turned in unison as a dark line like lighting began to rip at the sky. It grew wider until she saw yellow light shining through.
And then she saw Aysa.
“Holy shit I can’t believe that worked.”
The girl was wide eyed, staring at the alien world—and at her friends.
“Aysa,” Hannah said. “What the hell are you doing here?”
At the sound of Hannah’s voice, Aysa jumped to attention. “What? Oh shit, yeah. I’ve come to save you, I guess. We better hurry. Those two nerds have been bickering since the moment you left, tearing apart the Unlawful and the Badger and working at some machine of Vinnie’s. I have no idea how much longer they can hold this thing open.”
As shocked as everyone was to see the Baseeki, no one needed to be asked twice. Aysa waved her hand like she was welcoming people into her home. One by one they filtered through the rift, into the early morning light of Irth.
The sound of cheering and laughter waited for them on the other side.
Epilogue
Karl took a long drink of ale—courtesy of the Unlawful’s reserves. Gregory, Vinnie, and Aysa had pilfered a fair number of supplies off the ship to create a device strong enough to open a rift and save Hannah, but luckily, their drink reserve was left untouched.
A victory celebration just wasn’t the same without a little booze in his belly.
After the battle, the smell of death had hung thick and ripe in the air. Once the rifts were closed, it had been pretty easy work to finish the remaining Skrima. Without their leader, they quickly fell to the superior skill of this strange group of warriors.
The smell didn’t last long however. The Storm Caller Duncan coaxed in a cool breeze, and Vinnie, Bast, and Cleo used their weird magic to somehow dispose of the bodies. Vinnie tried to explain it to Karl, but the rearick gave up after a couple minutes of the odd man’s rambling.
“Damn magicians,” he grumbled as he looked for ways to make himself useful.
In Karl’s experience, the true test of a warrior was how they handled themselves after the fight. And this group proved they had mettle out the ass. The last few Skrima hadn’t even stopped twitching before they were already preparing for whatever would come next. The healers were healing, those with strength or magic were working to refortify their position, and the nerds got to work on finding a way to bring their heroes home.
They were all damned fine folk in Karl’s mind. Even the dragon.
But now all that was over. Hannah had returned with a battered but freed Ezekiel. Jaws dropped as Lilith came through the rift and a weapon or two was drawn. Aysa had to stop Boone from dropping to his four knees and worshipping her.
And with the safety of victory came the need for celebration.
It was a full-on Bitch and Bastard Brigade tradition.
Cathillian found them a feast which Vinnie had prepared overtop of a magical enhanced fire, and now the lot of them sat around enjoying the company. Even Sal seemed to have made new friends. The dragon was laying off to the side, his wings draped over two tigers the size of horses. Despite the fact that Karl had seen those creatures kill, maul, and maim, they looked to him now like a mother hen warming her chicks.
Maybe it was the drink, or left over adrenaline pounding through his veins, or maybe it was the fact that he was dining next to Astrid, but the rearick felt good. So good in fact that he decided to give a toast.
Everyone fell silent when they saw him raise his glass.
“I’m not usually one fer givin’ speeches, but I just couldn’t let the moment pass. Ya each fought with tha bravery of a dozen rearick, and I’d gladly raise me hammer by yer side again.”
“Hear, hear!” Abbey shouted and everyone followed suit.
“Now when I heard our Hannah had gone through that there rift—and that ya daft women followed after her—there wasn’t a drop a fear in me.”
“Bullshit,” Aysa shouted.
“Honest,” Karl continued. “I don’t know ya all very well, but I knew that if ya had the balls to dive into hell to help me Hannah, then ya must be worth somethin’. And I knew that if ya were fightin’ alongside Hannah—well, then ya were surely comin’ home again ta us. I know that girl better than I know anyone, and the one thing she never fails to do is surprise me. It’s somethin’ I’ve been tryin’ ta live up ta from the moment I met her. So, next time this bloody world needs savin’, ya lot call on me, ya hear!”
Everyone cheered, except for Aysa who booed and threw a hunk of meat at him. Karl didn’t mind. Despite how weird some of them looked, it was good to be among like minded souls.
The feast continued, but Hannah once again slipped away from it all. She climbed a small hill and sat under the moonlight.
Surveying the landscape, she sized up the odd assortment of men and women—heroes, every one—who had gathered from the far corners of Irth, heeding the call to do battle with an unknown enemy. They had fought well, all of them working together and subverting the odds stacked against them, but Hannah knew their true strength lay deeper than their skill at arms. Their resolve, their willingness to do whatever it took to save their world—that was their true strength.
As she watched her new friends, an old friend made his way to her side.
“Karl was right. You were really something out there,” Ezekiel said. He was still walking with a bit of a limp.
“Just doing what you taught me,” she replied.
“Oh, no,” he said. “You’ve far surpassed me, in every way.” His face was grim as he surveyed the damage around them.
She shook her head. “Zeke...I know this was rough. But you can’t keep blaming yourself. You were under their control, you couldn’t help what you were doing.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely true.”
She cocked her head to the side. For a moment it felt like they were back in Arcadia, and he was preparing to give her a lecture.
“How so?”
“Well,” he sighed. “I was aware enough to remember everything about our history together—and to use that to hurt you.”
“Zeke—”
“I know, I know. The Skrima. But it was me you fought out there. Even if it was a version of me with all goodness removed. But I think there was a kernel left of the old Zeke. A part o
f me that resisted. And it was enough to sow the seed of my own defeat.”
There was a slight smile creeping across his face as he said this.
“What do you mean?” She sensed a trap in his words, and immediately went on the defensive.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, raising his hands. “You fought admirably out there. Persevered when others would have quit. Kept your head when most would have panicked. But give me some credit. I’d like to think that I’m a better strategist than all this—when my head isn’t being muddled by those monsters. I mean, bringing together the strongest fighters from across Irth to face you all at once? That’s a terrible plan. And one destined to fail. Had I really wanted to win…”
She conquered the urge to punch him again but couldn’t hold back a laugh. “So you’re saying the spectacularly bad idea of bringing us all together was an act of righteous self-sabotage, and not the product of an insufferable hubris that really exists at your core? Sounds like you’re just embarrassed by the fact that I kicked your ass.”
He shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know.”
She rolled her eyes. It was just like being in Arcadia. “Well whatever the reason, I’m glad you did it. It’s nice to know that there are others like me out there. And now that we are acquainted, we’ll be there to help each other in the future if need be. Laughter’s General may have been defeated, but I’m not fool enough to believe that there aren’t other threats out there. I mean, the Matriarch and the Patriarch left for a reason, right? Who’s to say that whatever it is they’re fighting won’t slip past them.”
Ezekiel nodded as he considered her words. “And if they do? If another apocalypse threatens Irth?”
Hannah looked at the warriors before her. “We’ll be ready.”
FINIS
Author Note - LE Barbant
I freaking love crossovers. From small, in-world cameos to mega-franchise collaborations, when characters I love from different stories meet, it’s like a dream come true. It finally provides answers to questions a geek like me always has nagging at the back of my mind. Would my favorite characters like each other?
Would they get along?
What could they learn from one another?
And more importantly...who would win in a fight?
We’ve been planning on doing an Age of Magic crossover from day one (and some of you have been asking for it since at least day two), but we knew we had to wait until the time was right. We wanted enough characters with established backstories and character arcs to glean as much potential from this as we could.
It was WAY harder than we expected, but hopefully we pulled it off.
There are literally too many names to list here, but I wanted to thank everyone who contributed to project. If you thought there were a lot of characters in the AOM, you’d be amazed by all the characters who helped get this book off the ground. And we couldn’t have done it without you.
So thanks.
AND...as I mentioned at the beginning, if you’ve got questions about these characters, please check out the other Age of Magic and Age of Madness books. I mean...why not? They’re a pretty magical bunch...see what I did there?
For Irth!
Lee
Author Note - Michael Anderle
Written July 15, 2018
First, THANK YOU for not only reading this crossover event, but also these author notes in the back!
When CM Raymond and Lee Barbant had me on their podcast in 2016, I had NO idea what was ahead for the three of us…
Which became the four of us…five…six… (you get the idea.)
I remember vividly one day, walking around a Mercedes Dealership (I think I was having my car cleaned because in Dallas, Park Place Mercedes cleans them for free or the deluxe for super cheap) talking with Lee about the canon for the Age of Magic. He has a mind that conceives of the flow of the world, and together it was easy (well, for me) to work and provide the guidance for this age.
(I can’t speak with authority to Lee’s experience working with me, so I’m going to suggest it was stellar awesome and hope he doesn’t correct this comment before it goes to print.)
Over 2017 and 2018 Chris and Lee (and the other authors writing in the Age) have built a whole Age of the Kurtherian Gambit that is, for lack of a better description, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy. The Earth (Irth) has succumbed to the changes that Nuclear War brings, and the nanocytes have run amok, and changed humanity in ways that were not expected.
Certainly not me, and I created the Universe in the first place. But, when you seek to collaborate with other creatives, you often are provided with new ideas that just fit better than maybe what you were thinking by yourself.
And this is what happened for me. Chris, Lee, Candy, Amy, Justin, Brandon, PT and PJ all added new life to different parts of Irth and different concepts into what happened that further refined this age.
I am blessed to have these authors and co-creators adding their creativity to the Kurtherian Gambit. Without them, it would be a (certainly) a smaller universe, but more importantly it would be less rich. I appreciate Chris and Lee’s willingness to guide this group, and their willingness to take a challenge like THIS project on for the sake of the fans and work through it.
They say that if you want to understand a person, walk a mile in their shoes. I suggest that is an apt description that if you want to know what it takes to do a book like this…
Try it sometime.
Hopefully, for us readers, we just get to kick back and enjoy our friends and family we have read about before, coming together and providing us with a few more hours of entertainment.
I hope you enjoyed it!
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Age of Magic Books
THE RISE OF MAGIC
*with CM Raymond and LE Barbant*
Restriction (1) – Reawakening (2) – Rebellion (3) – Revolution (4) – Unlawful Passage (5) – Darkness Rises (6) – The Gods Beneath (7) – Reborn (8)
STORMS OF MAGIC
*with PT Hylton*
Storm Raiders (1) – Storm Callers (2) – Storm Breakers (3) – Storm Warrior (4)
TALES OF THE FEISTY DRUID
*with Candy Crum*
The Arcadian Druid (1) – The Undying Illusionist (2) – The Frozen Wasteland (3) – The Deceiver (4) – The Lost (5) – The Damned (6) – Into The Maelstrom (7)
A NEW DAWN
*with Amy Hopkins*
Dawn of Destiny (1) – Dawn of Darkness (2) – Dawn of Deliverance (3) – Dawn of Days (4) – Broken Skies (5) – Broken Bones (6)
TALES OF THE WELLSPRING KNIGHT
*with P.J. Cherubino*
Knight’s Creed (1) – Knight’s Struggle (2) – Knight’s Justice (3) - Etheric Knight (4)
THE HIDDEN MAGIC CHRONICLES
*with Justin Sloan*
Shades of Light (1) – Shades of Dark (2) – Shades of Glory (3) – Shades of Justice (4)
PATH OF HEROES
*with Brandon Barr*
Rogue Mage (1)
Books by Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/
All LMBPN Audiobooks are Available at Audible.com and iTunes. For a complete list of audiobooks visit:
www.lmbpn.com/audible
Connect with the authors
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Etheric Apocalypse Page 27