Tree Guardian

by Andrew Karevik

  “One wizard? No. But many of them? Yes,” Gariatha replied. “After all, Fernus is an unhinged madman and he gave you a spell that worked quite well on a lesser dungeon. There are far more sane wizards out there who have lived many lifetimes. You will probably survive in the end, but it will be a rough fight.”

  “This is not what I need to be dealing with right now,” I grumbled. “Gariatha, is there anything you can do to smooth this over? You are a great trader, surely you have influence with the Imperium?”

  “The Imperium is a central, planned economy,” she said. “They own all trading companies, and trade goods are nationalized. Not much room for individual trade with them, to be honest. They mostly deal with dwarves.”

  This was just another consequence of the continued escalation with Oregmyer. It seemed that no matter what I did, if I interfered with the real world, it would cause a chain reaction of events that would affect me quite negatively. I didn’t really know what to do at this point. Perhaps the best option would be to prepare to defend myself from the wizards who would arrive to fight and destroy me.

  But there had to be a better way than fighting back. I did not want these mortals to believe that I represented a great enemy, rather I needed them to know that I was a protector, a great spirit who was here to ensure that all of mankind survived the coming Invasion. But the Dungeon Below had sealed my fate as a monster, as an enemy of the Imperium.

  “Should you request it, we will call upon the tribes to defend you,” Gariatha said.

  More escalation? No. No, I did not want for this to happen at all. There was no reason for mortals to be killing one another, all because of my actions. I would handle this problem head on and put an end to it once and for all.

  I shifted my consciousness as high as it could go, not bothering to reply to the Merchant Queen. From my position at the top of my branches, I could make out most of the world. The northern empire was large and sprawled out across many mountains and plains. Built into the side of the Otz mountain was Castle Conelig, where Tiysus and his family ruled their land with an iron fist. This was the same mountain where an Illuminated was locked in. The Conelig lineage, in their desire for power, chose to live close to such a being in order to show they had no fear of anything.

  Moving my mind over to the castle would be a new experience for me. After all, Oregmyer was only a few miles away and was relatively easy to reach. But going across the Glymmic Ocean? This would be a little bit difficult to pull off. But I had to speak to the emperor, face to face, to convince him that there were greater things at stake than a dungeon.

  I tightened my focus and began to burrow through the air, feeling a part of my own mind break off from the tree. I was growingly dimly aware of what was happening within my home, the further and further that I got. With such distance, I knew my magical powers would be limited, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t here to attack them, just to dissuade them.

  There was a powerful barrier of energy around the castle, shimmering bright blue, no doubt able to ward off most magical attacks or teleportation spells. It required the utmost focus to pass it, but I was able to, sailing through into the gigantic castle.

  The castle itself looked as if it had been designed for creatures much larger than humans, with the doors towering at nine feet and each step of the stairs so tall that pathways had to be cut into them to give humans access. I could feel an ancient magic radiate in the very walls of such a castle. I wondered who had created such a place and for what purpose. It certainly wasn’t human in its design.

  My consciousness moved through the castle, searching room to room in the hopes of finding the emperor. Eventually, I came across him sitting in a war room of sorts, reading various books on the dungeons of Yehan. He was alone, with not even an attendant. This was the best possible scenario, for there would be no bluster, no noise. Just an honest conversation between two people.

  “I am the Great Tree that you came to not a day ago,” I whispered.

  Emperor Tiysus glanced up in shock and placed his hand on his sword for a moment. But once he realized that there was no physical presence in the room, he relaxed. “Have you come to gloat about the utter destruction of my men?” he asked. I could sense a sorrow in him at the loss of his army. Despite his rough demeanor, he genuinely cared about his people.

  “I have come to discuss many things,” I replied. “But I must set one thing straight, emperor. I did not harm your people that day.”

  “Oh yes, of course, it was ultimately my decisions that brought them harm,” he growled. “Very philosophical.”

  “No. I do not mean to cast blame towards you. I am being honest when I say that I was not the one who attacked.”

  “Then who did?”

  And so I told him of the Dungeon Below, that wretched and foul creature that lives beneath me, consuming the souls and lives of any in its path. He listened intently, but I could see the skepticism written across his face.

  “So you are meaning to tell me that another, entirely different dungeon came to attack us? And you expect that I would believe this?” Tiysus asked, laughing a little from the implausibility of the situation.

  “Believe it or not, emperor, but I am here to find peace. I do not wish for there to be continued hostilities between us.”

  “How can there be peace when a monster such as yourself has proven to be both an interloper and a torturer?” Tiysus asked. “Even if you had not slain all of my men, you certainly have been a thorn in my side for quite some time.”

  “I…” There were many options to take with speaking to him. I chose humility. Perhaps he would be able to understand me better if I were to be honest. “I have made choices so that I could grow in my own power. Some of those choices involved the mortal world and, to be honest with you, there were so many unintended consequences. And each solution that I came up with only brought more problems with them.”

  “Sounds about right,” Tiysus said, sinking back into his chair. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the throne, it is that you spend eighty percent of your time fixing the problems you caused. And you spend twenty percent of that time causing more problems than you can fix. Let’s suppose then that your story about this Dungeon Below is correct. It doesn’t change what you have done to my allies. It doesn’t change the fact that I am legally obligated to protect them.”

  “And my destruction is part of your legal obligation?”

  “My country doesn’t have prisons. You are either taken as a slave to serve your time, or executed for your crimes. And since enslaving you would not be possible, the only other option would be to kill you,” he replied. “Or at the very least, look as if we are trying to kill you.” He pointed to the scattering of books on the table. I recognized a few as they were also in Fernus’ library.

  “You are not like the other dungeons, of that I am sure. Interfering with politics, making deals, capturing gods. This behavior isn’t typical. What are you?” he asked.

  “I am the World Tree, a seed from another realm, planted here in your time of need, so that I may defend you all in the coming end of reality,” I replied. There was no reason to keep the Invasion a secret to this man.

  “You speak of the strange beasts that have been seen in the Mass of Sleep?” Tiysus said, sighing heavily. “Are they your enemies?”

  “They are everyone’s enemies. Terrible creatures with contempt for all that is and all that will be.”

  “My prophets have been warning about something terrible to come. One of them was quite adamant that I not bring my army to bother you. I should have listened to her,” he said, eyes narrow and head shaking with disappointment.

  “What did she tell you?”

  “That if I were to bring my army, you would level this entire castle to the ground, destroy it with your great power.”

  “An odd thing to prophesy,” I said. “I have no intention of bringing your home any harm. I just wish to broker a deal for peac
e between us.”

  “I’ve seen my fair share of prophecies,” Tiysus said. “They always have some kind of ironic twist to them. But I’ll be damned if I try to tiptoe around the future, looking to soothsayers for advice. A man builds his future, he does not wait for it to manifest in front of him.”

  I was not nearly as gung-ho as the human emperor when it came to disregarding prophecy. What could she have possibly seen? I would never, despite any cruelties from these humans, attempt to destroy a castle full of servants and innocent civilians. Perhaps she was speaking about something more than what Tiysus could grasp. I must speak with her.

  “You are reasonable, I know this full well,” I said. “You know deep down that if I had the power to arrive here, then I have the power to bring down great judgment upon you.”

  “So it would seem,” Tiysus said. “So what then? I just ignore your crimes? Pretend as if I am not obligated to mete out judgment?”

  “You said servitude is another means of punishment, yes?” I asked.

  “Aye.”

  “Then I shall serve your nation for a time. You have a great foothold in the north, yet you lack any bases in the south. I would create a garrison, with great portals within them, allowing for your troops to move to and fro as they wish.”

  “And you would offer me such a thing why?” Tiysus asked.

  “Because I have, in a way, wronged you and your allies. My actions were reckless enough to lead to the loss of those four thousand men. You were merely responding to a threat. Let us put away our hostilities and instead begin a friendship.” I neglected to mention that having an army on standby would be handy for when the full Invasion would begin.

  Tiysus stroked his beard in thought for a moment. “Having those portals would cut down on our patrol times, as well as bring us closer to our dwarven allies. I will agree to such terms, but on the stipulation that this garrison is created above ground, outside of your dungeon. I do not want my people fearing that you will attempt to devour them.”

  “And in exchange, your people will stay out of my dungeon, agreed?”

  “Agreed,” Tiysus said. “I shall write a decree of judgment and we shall resolve this peacefully. I wish to thank you, Great Tree, for your pragmatism. We Conelig men only seek war when it is of the utmost advantage. There would be no profit in fighting against you.”

  “And I do not wish to hurt any mortals who do not seek out the treasures within my dungeon,” I replied. “There is no profit in bringing harm to the outside world.”

  There was a tension in the air, unspoken between the both of us. Would Tiysus really agree to my deal, or simply use this as a foothold to attack me? And no doubt he wondered if I was planning the same thing. But there was a bigger threat looming over the both of us, and I could see the fear on his face when I spoke about the Invasion that was to come. I needed to speak to the prophetess, to find out what she had witnessed.

  Chapter 31

  My consciousness lingered in the castle for some time as I searched for the prophetess who had tried to warn Emperor Tiysus of interfering with me. After a few hours, I began to realize that she was not present within the castle, but was rather in a temple located near the godseal that had trapped one of the Illuminated within.

  Much to my surprise, the temple was filled with prophets, monks and priestesses who were busy going about their holy duties. There were dozens of shrines to all manner of gods, but many of which I could not recognize. Only then when I saw the shrine to Agara did I understand what this place was. It was a temple of the dead gods, the ones who had been slain or destroyed by their rivals.

  Yet, there was such a presence of divine power in the air, as if the collective beliefs of these holy men and women gave them the ability to cast spells. Healings were being performed on those who traveled up the mountain from the villages below, fortunes were being told and even a man was resurrected from the dead, his body carried by on ox-cart.

  How was this possible? How could these caretakers of the dead gods have the power to cast divine magic? Were they followers of some other deity? I saw no shrine to any living god, and I doubted even the most kind of deities would allow their followers to worship the dead.

  As I watched the people work in the cavernous temple, I noticed a young woman, with bright red hair, wearing robes of burlap, waving at me. Or at least, waving in the exact spot my consciousness had been manifest. She kept pointing to me, as if she knew of my presence. Perhaps this was the prophetess that the emperor had spoken of.

  “Yes, child?” I asked.

  “Child? A thousand years I have lived,” she said. “Much longer than you.”

  “Yet you bear the face of a human barely in adulthood,” I replied.

  “Such is the effect of the Great Pact,” she said. “A stupid girl makes a stupid oath, and now here she stands, so much older. So much more tired. But then, without us, who would remember the dead? Who would guard the creature within?”

  “So your order is composed of guardians?” I asked.

  “Guardians, stewards, caretakers. Ask any of us what our role is and we’ll tell you something different, depending on the century. You have come a long way to see me. Or was it the emperor that you wanted to speak with?”

  “I have already spoken to him.”

  “And so peace was found?” she asked, glancing around with a slight expression of worry. “Nothing seems to be crumbling yet. Odd.”

  “I wished to ask you about your vision, the thing you warned the emperor about before he left to meet with me.”

  “Vision? I have no such gift,” the prophetess replied. “I only hear whispers of the monster who resides here. And it knows a great deal of what is to come. And it was excited about you, so very excited.”

  “The Illuminated can speak to you? I thought they were sealed away.”

  “This one is very strong and the godseal grows weaker with each passing millennium. It can sense the outside world now and, as such, likes to tell us of what is to come. We sit at its feet and learn the great secrets of the future, the secrets that the Mistmother has sealed away from all other prophets and soothsayers,” the woman said. She waved, to invite me over to look at the great godseal.

  There was another petrified corpse embedded in the wall, although this one looked much different than the one I had seen before. It was gigantic, nearly thirty feet tall, with six long, bony arms stretching upwards into a strange symbol. It had no legs, but a long torso that was reminiscent of a centipede. I felt it watching me.

  There you are, it said. The voice was different, not in my head, or in my ears but…as if it were my own thoughts, echoing louder and louder with each passing second. It took some work to get you here. The easiest way to get the emperor to commit to a plan of action is to tell him that he shouldn’t.

  “You are the creature within.”

  They called me Muiroc when I was alive. Or at least, what they considered to be alive. I will cut to the chase, since I detest speaking with lesser beings. Drinar’s Prison has become corrupted thanks to his presence. He has been able to infect the dungeon, allowing it great power. As it grows in strength, it will eventually be able to break the godseal and assume his rightful form. The creature who carries him is brutish and thuggish, but incurably mad due to Drinar’s influence.

  “You speak of the Dungeon Below. I sensed an unnatural intelligence in the creature.”

  Indeed. Drinar gifts him with great thoughts and ingenious plans. I have seen the threads of time enough to know that Drinar will break free soon. And when he does, you shall be destroyed. And with your destruction goes the entire realm. That cannot happen. You must kill Drinar for good.

  “You would betray your own kind?”

  I have no kind. There is none like me, nor will there ever be anything like me. There will come a time where I shall break free and bring about a nightmarish era that will end in the death of all gods. But I cannot achieve my own ends if real
ity is consumed. So I must aid you, for now. And you must accept my aid, for you know that you are Yehan’s only hope.

  A manipulative creature, but quite brilliant. “So what must I do to kill the damned thing?”

  The godseal was a paltry invention, developed by fools who believed we were immortal beings. There are many ways that we return after death, but it is possible to kill us. The very thing that gave us birth is the thing that can bring about the final death.

  Deep magic. My mind darted back to the books that spoke about how all deep magic had been locked away in a vault by the gods, to deprive mortal men of using the power to create more powerful creatures.

  I shall transfer to your mind a single thought, a method of shaping the magic into a weapon that will allow you to pierce through the godseal and into the heart of Drinar. But you must find a way to garner the deep magic necessary to create that weapon.

  At once, I felt an immense pressure push against my thoughts and I reflexively tried to block the invasion, but my willpower was worthless compared to Muiroc’s own strength. I felt a great pain rush through me, echoing all the way to my body that was hundreds of miles away. Searing into my mind was a single spell that could create the Drinarslayer Blade. Yet the ways to forge this spell, to cast this magic was so foreign, so unintelligible that I could scarcely understand it. This must have been what deep magic looked like.

  I find it ironic that I must rely on such a feeble mind to save myself from destruction. If only I had a few more millennia…but sadly, I must work with what I have. Go forth, Tree, collect the deep magic you need and kill Drinar before he awakens and dooms us all.

  And with that, the spirit’s presence faded from me. The young woman was still talking to me. In fact, the entire exchange between Muiroc and I had taken place mid-syllable. She carried on as if nothing had happened. I was polite and thanked her for her time, but quickly put an end to the conversation. Muiroc had engineered this entire thing in the hopes of catching my attention. I did not know if this was a good thing.