The moment he stepped foot within, something snapped deep within his consciousness. He felt a presence invade his mind in a way the voice of his demon or Soulhunger had never been able to. Before he could throw up a mental wall to block it out, the presence drove through his defenses like a hurricane through a haystack. It was powerful beyond belief, and it seemed to take control of his body.
His eyes flashed toward the stairway leading to the second floor—he knew he had to go up to find the Sage and Hailen—but his feet led him away, jerking like a marionette dancing on strings. In vain, he fought to wrest control of his body from that presence. His efforts had as much effect as trying to drown a fish.
Instead, the immense force pulled him toward a staircase that led downward. Down, down, down, deep into the bowels of Enarium beneath the Illumina. Five floors, six, more. All the while the Hunter fought in vain to break free.
The stairs ended in a room made entirely of the black stone of the Dolmenrath. Only two spots of color broke the obsidian gloom of the chamber: the gemstone pillar at its heart, and a familiar bas-relief etching on the wall in front of him.
A figure lay atop a stone altar, held in place by strong bonds, arms folded over his chest. Eleven radiant figures surrounded it, reaching out their arms to send threads of power into the man atop the altar. The same carving he’d seen in Kara-ket and again in the Vault of Stars in Vothmot.
Tendrils of ice crept down his spine. He fought with every shred of strength, yet in that moment, he knew he could not triumph. He fought the will of a god.
His arms rose of their own accord, his hands stretching out to touch the hands of the figure trapped upon the altar, where a single large gemstone was set into one upturned palm. The instant his fingers touched the stone, a voice echoed in his mind—a voice with enough power to shatter worlds.
GREETINGS, LITTLE ONE. IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE LAST WE SPOKE.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The world around the Hunter went black—not the blackness of an enclosed room plunged into darkness, but the absolute emptiness of a void in which no light had ever existed. In this place, there was no sight, no sound, no smell. Simply…nothing.
He floated in the null. He couldn’t feel his arms, his legs, even the pounding of his heart against his ribs. In this place, only his mind existed.
His mind, and the voice of a god.
IT HAS BEEN AN EON SINCE LAST WE SPOKE. A HUNDRED GENERATIONS OF HUMANS HAVE COME AND GONE. CIVILIZATIONS RISEN AND CRUMBLED TO DUST. YET HERE YOU STAND, JUST AS YOU AGREED.
The Hunter found he could feel shocked surprise in this place. “As I…agreed?” Confusion surged within him. “We have…spoken before?”
A moment of silence passed, then the voice returned.
AHH, I SEE THE FOLLOWERS OF MY BROTHER IRROTH HAVE TAKEN FROM YOUR MIND.
“Irroth, your…brother?” Chaos whirled in the Hunter’s thoughts. “Wait, do you mean the Illusionist?”
THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD NAMED HIM SUCH, YES. A hint of amusement echoed in the god’s voice. TO THOSE OF US WHO KNEW HIM, WE FOUND HIM FAR LESS CLEVER THAN YOU MORTALS BELIEVE.
Those words struck him as so much more human than he’d expected from a god.
SHALL I FREE YOUR MEMORIES? SHALL I RETURN ALL THAT WAS LOCKED AWAY?
The Hunter hesitated. All his life, he’d wanted to know what had been taken from him. In Al Hani, he’d learned the Illusionist Clerics erased his memory every hundred years, as a means of giving him a fresh start. He’d hated them for that, yet now he wasn’t sure how he felt. He wanted a glimpse into his past, wanted to see all the important things that had happened to him, yet he had no desire to end up like Arudan. Perhaps the combination of a long life and intact memories could prove a greater curse than not knowing.
A WISE CHOICE. Was that a hint of approval in the god’s voice? YOUR MIND, THOUGH IT SHARES MANY THINGS IN COMMON WITH OURS, IS NOT SUITED FOR IMMORTALITY. CALL IT THE EFFECTS OF HUMANITY, IF YOU WILL.
“Things in common…with yours?” The Hunter struggled to digest that. “How is that possible?”
THE ANSWERS YOU SEEK MAY BEAR LITTLE RESEMBLENCE TO THE TRUTH YOU DESIRE. DO YOU WISH TO SEE?
“See what?”
SEE WHAT WAS, WHAT IS, AND WHAT WILL BE.
“How can I know that anything you’re telling me is the truth?” the Hunter asked. “You’re nothing more than a voice in my mind, but how do I know you’re real? You could be just my imagination, or an Abiarazi trick.” It was a feeble resistance, he knew, in the face of a god.
I AM AS REAL AS YOU ARE. AS REAL AS THE GROUND BENEATH YOUR FEET.
With those words, sensation returned to the Hunter’s limbs. The empty void hid any ground from view, but he could feel his feet resting on solid stone.
AS REAL AS THE BLOOD THAT PUMPS IN YOUR VEINS.
The thump, thump of his heartbeat echoed in the Hunter’s ears.
AS REAL AS WHAT YOU FEEL FOR YOUR WIFE AND CHILD.
“Get out of my head!” the Hunter snarled. “If you want to tell me something, do it properly, face to face, man to man.”
Thunder rumbled in the Hunter’s mind with enough force to set his head pounding. He cried out in pain, but he realized the god wasn’t angry, but laughing.
EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, the voice said, YOU HAVE NOT CHANGED.
Suddenly, light flared around the Hunter, and the world filled with color and life. He gasped as he took in his surroundings. Somehow, impossibly, he hovered high in the sky, with the clouds beneath his feet and solid ground far, so terribly far below.
A figure appeared beside him. Tall, stately, the creature had pale grey skin, a sloped forehead, oddly long skull, and a near-flat nose. Sharp canines protruded from its mouth, but it had a far less bestial appearance than the Stone Guardians outside Enarium. Indeed, it bore a strong resemblance to a human, though with two joints in its elbows, knees, and fingers. Intelligence glittered in the violet eyes it fixed on him.
The Hunter’s gut clenched as he recognized the creature: a Serenii, identical to the statue he’d seen in the twin temples of Kara-ket.
“You wish to see?” the figure asked. He—that it was male, the Hunter had no doubt—spoke in a voice that no longer threatened to shatter worlds, but it still echoed with the same gravitas and ageless immutability.
“First, tell me who you are.” The Hunter found himself surprised by his own stubbornness. He’d never believed the gods existed, much less that he would meet one. Yet he would not accept what anyone said—not man, demon, or deity—without a healthy dose of the cynicism that had kept him alive all these years. “Who am I speaking to?”
“To the men of Einan, I am known as Kharna,” the Serenii-looking god spoke the words without inflection.
The Hunter drew in a sharp breath and reached for a sword, Soulhunger, anything to defend himself. Dread coiled like a serpent in his gut as he found himself clad in a simple belted robe, without any weapons. Evidently, the god—Kharna—hadn’t bothered to bring anything sharp or pointed into this vision.
“Destroyer!” The Hunter backed away from the grey-skinned creature, acid surging in his throat. “I will not hear your lies—”
The Hunter cried out as agony tore through every fiber of his being. It felt as if he were torn apart and pieced together a thousand times, yet all in the space of a single instant. The torment passed as quickly as it came. The Serenii-looking figure hadn’t moved, but a hint of something dangerous cracked through its long-suffering expression.
“Torture me all you want.” The Hunter clenched his fist and steeled himself. “I will not give you what you desire.”
Something that could have been a smile creased the Serenii’s too-thin lips. “And how do you know what I desire?”
“The same thing all beings desire,” the Hunter snarled. “Freedom.”
“That is what all human beings desire,” Kharna said. “To know the truth, you must be willing to listen.”
“And how
can I know that it actually is the truth?” The Hunter raised an eyebrow. “What’s to stop you from lying? Isn’t that what you do?”
“Deceit is a tool created by mortal man.” Kharna’s eyes revealed no anger—they held no emotion. “But you are right to question the truth. After all, truth is a matter of perspective, twisted by the passage of time. Let me, therefore, offer you a glimpse at reality. Fact, unadulterated and uncolored by opinion or emotion. The only immutable truth.”
With effort, the Hunter stopped himself from spitting a retort. When in the presence of a god, he decided, perhaps it was better to hold his tongue. “Show me.”
Kharna swept an arm toward the landscape far below. “Behold, the world of Einan as it once was.”
A vast landscape stretched out beneath him, and it seemed the Hunter could see the entire world at once—from the jagged peaks of the Empty Mountains to the blue expanse of the Frozen Sea, with all the rolling hills, wild forests, and rich grasslands between. Everything was pristine, untamed, untouched by the hand of human or Serenii.
“Einan was a masterpiece, fashioned by the hands of beings far wiser and older than what you know as gods.” Kharna no longer spoke in a physical voice, but the words echoed in the Hunter’s thoughts. “We were simply placed here to be its guardians, its caretakers.”
The Hunter’s view narrowed in on tall, grey-skinned creatures striding across the verdant landscape. Beasts of the earth, air, and sea flocked to the newcomers, welcoming them as equals instead of masters. The Serenii--somehow, he simply knew what they were, perhaps Kharna’s consciousness filtering into his—made their homes in the trees of the forests, the fast-flowing rivers, and the deep places beneath the mountains.
“As we learned more of this world’s wonders, we found ways to harness its power.”
Towers rose from the earth, taking the shape of structures that bore strong resemblances to the Black Spire in Praamis, Lord Apus’ tower in Malandria, the twin temples in Kara-ket, and many more the likes of which he’d never seen, never even imagined.
“The power of the sun and winds, the moon and stars, of gravity and motion.”
The towers of the Serenii grew more numerous until they dotted every corner of the vast landscape that was the world of Einan. The sheer scope of it stole his breath—these creatures truly had mastered the world.
“Time beyond your imagining passed, and Einan knew only peace and prosperity. Serenii lived in harmony with the other beings that shared our world—beasts of the earth, fowls of the air, fish of the sea.”
Years seemed to flow by in the space of a few seconds. Vast forests turned from green to red, yellow, and orange, lost their leaves, then bloomed with new life. Grassy landscapes turned to yellow deserts, ice-covered tundras, then once more to verdant pastures. A hundred times, a thousand, more than the Hunter could count.
“Then the Creators of our world gave us the gift of a new life: the life of man. Not our equals, but above the beasts of land, ocean, and air. A beast created to bring change to Einan.”
New figures walked the earth, these human. They ate fruit from the trees, then sharpened stones into axes to cut down those trees for warmth and shelter. Men, women, and children spread across the face of Einan, welcomed by the animals—animals that served as clothing, food, companions, and servants.
“At first, we did not understand the reason for this change. We sought to question our Creators, but our entreaties fell on deaf ears. We could not know the answer.”
The Hunter’s view narrowed in on one of the towers, where a handful of the ancient Serenii watched the humans roaming the land that had been their domain for time beyond time.
“Despite our incomprehension, we trusted the wisdom of our Creators, and thus we joined hands with mankind in caring for this world.”
All across Einan, Serenii descended from the lofty heights of their towers to meet with the humans. The Hunter felt the benevolence of the Serenii, the instinctive fear of the humans. Slowly, the fear faded and both races found harmony in sharing the world.
“These short-lived beings offered a fresh perspective on our world. We, in turn, shared with them the secrets we had learned. Secrets what you humans call ‘magick’ but is, in fact, simply an understanding of the laws that govern our world and how they can be manipulated.”
The Hunter’s breath caught in his throat as he watched a human woman shooting bright flames out of her hands, and a young man lifted a boulder thrice his size without apparent effort. The Serenii had taught the ancient humans their magick. Everyone on Einan knew the Serenii had wielded tremendous power—enough to challenge the very gods, it was said. Yet beyond mention of their “Creators”, Kharna had not yet spoken of anything resembling the thirteen gods of Einan.
“And what about the gods?” the Hunter asked. “The Master, the Swordsman, Derelana, all the others?”
“Patience,” Kharna said, and that smile-like expression returned to his face. “Time passes not as we will it, but as it wills.”
Again, the Hunter forced himself not to retort. Evidently, men like Father Reverentus had inherited their knack for being cryptic from the Serenii.
“Our search for knowledge led us to explore the secrets not only of this world,” Kharna continued, turning back to study the landscape below, “but worlds that exist parallel to ours.”
The Hunter didn’t bother pretending he understood how that worked. He was fast reaching his limit for mind-boggling revelations just by talking with Kharna, a god that was supposed to be locked in an eternal prison deep within the bowels of Einan.
“On these parallel worlds, we discovered the existence of creatures similar to us.” Kharna turned to the Hunter. ”In human terms, you would call them ‘relatives’.”
The Hunter couldn’t help a disbelieving snorting. The image of Serenii sitting around a family dinner with cousins, uncles, aunts, and in-laws seemed almost too much to process.
“After much debate, we concluded that it was in the best interest of our world to establish contact with these creatures.”
The Hunter’s view of the world centered on the top of a massive, shining tower taller than the clouds. Thirteen Serenii figures stood in a circle within the towertop, their hands joined and power crackling between their bodies. The air in their midst solidified, twisted, buckled, and split open with a deafening sound. A fiery hole rent reality and a gateway into another existence opened in front of them.
“We welcomed them with open arms, sought to give them a home on our world. They accepted our offer and came through the gates we opened.” For the first time, Kharna’s voice echoed with emotion: anger. “They called themselves Abiarazi.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Hunter’s breath caught in his throat. Abiarazi? The demons are related to the Serenii? The thought set his stomach roiling.
His mind flashed back to the statues he’d seen in Kara-ket. It seemed hard to believe the creature he’d seen there—or the one standing before him—had anything in common with the bestial Abiarazi he’d seen beneath Voramis or the Stone Guardians he’d fought on the trail to Enarium. Yet, looking closer, he could see some similarities. They were roughly the same size, nearly twice the Hunter’s height, and though the Serenii lacked the demons’ brawn, they had similar multi-jointed limbs. There could be some familial resemblance between the two, similar to the way wolves shared a species with the puffy-haired, calf-height dogs popular among the nobility of Voramis.
“We soon learned that they shared more in common with the humans than with us.” Kharna continued, seeming not to notice or simply ignoring the Hunter’s perplexity. “They, too, were creatures driven by their passions, a stark contrast to our adherence to logic above all. They allowed their desires to shape their moralities.”
Turmoil gripped the once-peaceful land of Einan as the creatures the Hunter knew as demons warred with each other. It seemed the Abiarazi were divided into clans, each from a different part of their world, and th
ose clans battled for dominance, resources, or the sheer pleasure of bloodshed. For the first time since its creation, blood and death spread across the face of the world.
“All too soon, we discovered the truth of why they had accepted our offer to come to our world. They fled in fear of the Devourer of Worlds.”
The Hunter’s brow furrowed. “They were afraid of you?”
“No.” Weariness echoed in Kharna’s voice. “They were afraid of the Devourer. Devourer of Worlds, the Beginning and End of All Things.”
Once again, the Hunter’s vision narrowed into the same towertop to watch the Serenii open a portal to another world. But this time, the portal did not close. Tendrils of inky blackness, deeper than the darkest night, slithered from the tear in reality. Through the gateway, the Hunter could see something that defied his understanding. Swirling, changing, decaying. A void where light, breath, and life died.
“A being of chaos, seeking to return the universe to its natural state of entropy before the Creators imposed order upon it.” Was that fear in Kharna’s violet eyes? “A being far more powerful than even we could predict.”
A single drip of the swirling blackness fell onto the floor of the tower, and immediately the stone crumbled away into nothingness. The drop kept eating down, down through the entire structure, and tendrils of chaos seeped throughout the tower. Within heartbeats—it could have been minutes, hours, or years in real time—the tower crumbled to nothingness. The threads of chaos delved into the bowels of Einan itself, until only a gaping void remained.
The Hunter shuddered; he’d only seen one such massive hole before. Had he just witnessed the creation of what the people of Voramis knew as the Midden?
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