The vision ended and Rojo startled to himself held in place by the emperor’s hand on his shoulder. His face streamed tears and he wept. Alerius’ grip gentled and then the emperor spoke, “I turned my attention to fortifying my Morbatten. Those twenty-five, I removed to the northern mountain plains. The rest of my empire came together that day. Painful as it was, you humans are driven by events like this. Your lineage Rojo traces back to that priestess, the first Dar priestess of my mother’s first Temple At Morbatten. Within 30 years, and by my own labor, Morbatten was fortified but lacked enough soldiers to defend her. I opened my borders, sent out recruiters like Daryx, and within 100 years I grew tired of waiting. We marched on Bloodstone.”
Rojo’s grief calmed in the silence that followed and wind blew through the mountain. The sun had started rising and gleamed golden orange out in the sea. “Take note Rojo that, when your destiny comes, you are of that priestess and she withstood the Hellhound in direct combat. At the feet of the Jade God, she rallied my children and guarded over them. You have already withstood Hellhounds. This time, you will stand before the Jade God and it will be different. My children must strike this time. It is your time. You, not I, must stand against it. Unlike your ancestor, you are armed with centuries of knowledge, training, and a war machine unlike anything conceived in Tehra, ever. With LORD and now LORD’s successor here, the time is nigh for you to unleash this beautiful war machine. This grand spearhead is almost ready to destroy Orcus.”
Rojo watched the sun rise and the white clouds drifting in the air. Down in the valleys below them, he could just make out the openings where the progeny of those survivors now lived as the “barbarians”, the pure bloodline of the humans Alerius had preserved for millennia. His human father had been chosen by Alerius to come into the Capitol. There he had fallen in love with a Sorian woman and opened a trade route to Taysor. While not exactly “typical” behavior for a barbarian, Rojo remembered his father had always been a stand out. He had a gift for strategy that most of his kin did not. It made him stand out from the warrior stock. Though a powerful fighter, his father had shunned typical hand to hand combat and had proven a savant for defeating his challengers in unconventional ways.
In Taysor, he and his wife gave birth to Rojo and then to a daughter. By the time Rojo could walk, he and his father attended a dojo set up by Imperics worshipping the god Imperius. By his eighth birthday, his father had achieved their highest martial recognition. Had he converted, his father would no doubt have become a powerful priest in that religion. However, he remained true to Takhissis. His conviction to the dragon queen caused no end of problems in Taysor, which prided itself on the worship of the so-called “good” gods. It had orphaned him but not before his father had taught Rojo and ensured the Temple of Imperius knew Rojo. The martial skills learned there had always served him well. Rojo had brought it back to the knighthood and the Temple order. Proficiency with Imperius’ religion and fighting techniques had been added to the Empire.
Rojo clenched his fist and turned looking up at the dragon emperor’s eyes. “I will be ready Father, and will do the Queen proud.”
Chapter Nineteen – The Lich's Ultimatum
At a different overlook far southwards, a dire figure shrouded in grayish shadow-shifting armor glowered over a battlefield. The southern gates of this human city called "Ori" had yet to fall. He felt out of time and place. While magic readily came to his call, it felt sluggish as if it suffered from too many chokepoints. Something about this place resisted his will to reshape it. He could, but it took far more effort than he remembered. Everything about this place felt like he walked against a current of wind and water, slowing him down and tripping his thoughts. The language and names and places, even the land all looked blighted and sick to his eyes. He turned his back on the carnage spilling forth in front of Ori’s southern gate.
Two revenant warriors dragged one of these strange humans into the chamber. The human had a shaved head and wore loose-fitting clothing. His body from ankle to wrist to neckline bore a tattoo telling the tale of this new god, Imperius and probably some scripture and some other dribble about the human’s own achievements. As ordered, the man’s hands and feet had been amputated and a heavy head cage fastened around his upper body. The revenants tossed the man into the room, his wounds smearing the floor red with fresh blood and the heavy head cage shrieked against the stone. The revenant held forth a hissing and steaming golden symbol. Where its desiccated hands held it, small sparks of golden fire burned.
The lich stepped forward and enjoyed the man’s increased quivering. He asked this Imperic, “Talai qkival?” The lich shook its head remembering that none of these new creatures understood the eldar languages. “Would you live?” The revenant tossed the symbol to the lich who caught, felt it begin burning into his hand, and held it before the man’s face. In shock and writhing in pain, the lich sensed the man's death and touched his forehead. His black fingernail dug into the skin and hot burning magic and the lich's will that he not die bound his wounds together, trapping his soul in its dying body. "You will not die, not today. But, tell me, who do you serve? What is this token?"
The man took several breaths trying not to choke on the pestilential aura filling the space between the lich and revenants. “I serve Imperius.”
“Yes, you serve this so-called god Imperius. I’ve heard this before. Do you want to die here, forsaken by your god? I need a messenger.” The lich grabbed the metal head cage and lifted the man off the floor. “To take a message to that city. It’s your lucky day. You’ll be my messenger whether you wish to or not, but I know you’ll say yes because it’s the right thing to do.” The lich rasped an evil chuckle. The lich held the man up to look out over the plain of combat and the southern gate. Life-stealing chills ran down the metal head cage from the lich’s hand. "What is your name?"
"Toshiro Daikune, monk of Imperius," he coughed out blood and the words.
While they watched, the lich whispered and the flow of magic enwrapped them both. They vanished in a flash and reappeared several hundred yards before the gate. Corpses and rivulets of blood ran back from Ori’s raised walls. Though the sun shone brightly overhead, the lich’s daytime army worked siege engines and hurled stones, decaying flesh, and molten heaps of cast off armor and equipment into Ori. Holding the human in one hand, the lich pointed at the gate and its forces in line parted. More eldar words and the ground pulsed and rent as a crack ran towards the gate. Golden robed priests along the wall had already alerted to the lich’s appearance, but moved into high tempo as the crack reached the wall. Golden spears of light and shields either tried to deflect the magical attack or to reinforce the gate and walls around it.
The lich chuckled low and wickedly as the gate held and cheering erupted from the wall's defenders. The cheering, after a minute, turned to jeers and taunts. “See how naïve they are?” the lich said to Toshiro. Someone used a catapult to launch a stone at the lich. The aim appeared dead on but the stone crumbled to dust that blew down and away from them.
“You will be my messenger now Toshiro. Tell them of dust and ash and pain.” The lich dropped the hand and footless monk to the ground. The head cage pulled him off balance. “Crawl and give them this message. Either your god Imperius or your ruler shall meet me here tomorrow at noon to discuss Ori’s surrender. Failure to respond, will result in more of this.”
The lich lifted the head cage and turned it to the southern gate, “Watch.”
The gates rippled and then turned molten. The walls around the gates did as well. Burning creatures leapt out of the liquefied stone mess and attacked the gate guards. Whatever touched them fell apart into oozing fire, like some kind of amoebic but elemental fire monster. Spells and prayers slowed the creatures a bit but then the gates trembled and fell completely into an oozing wave of glass. What had been the walls, puddled and began draining into the torn earth. The lich dropped the head cage and its weight clanged loudly on the stony ground as Toshiro fell
on his face and arm stumps. “You’d best start crawling monk.”
Toshiro tried to move forward and only sheer will made it happen as he whimpered in agony. A voice behind him whispered, "and Torment. Tell them they will serve me either way."
Another few lunges forward and he coughed choking on his own blood. Each movement hurt, was a lightning storm of agony. The creatures left him alone though. After what felt an eternity, he made it to the gate.
Chapter Twenty – Morbatten's Ambassador
Bereft of his hands and feet and weighed down by the heavy metal cage around his head, Toshiro crawled on his bleeding knee and elbow stumps. As he crawled, he prayed to Imperius but something about the head cage prevented his prayers. He could feel it as a different pain from his maimed body.
The gate was not safety. The lich's armies milled about laughing at the molten goo and splashing it at the Imperics across the way. Toshiro's pain and his wounds mocked him as he struggled on over the field littered with everything but bodies older than the night. As night fell, any corpses left would rise up and join the lich’s host. The ogres commanding the day forces spit on him and laughed, being joined by the chattering of the other goblinoids. Overhead, the siege barrage continued in both directions but no one and nothing touched the monk as he wormed his way forward. The molten ground cooled to his touch and he began working across the oddly-colored lava.
He must have reached the front line because something kicked his head cage and then a gruff ogre voice swore and the obstacle blocking him moved. An eternity later, he felt the ground grow warm and he knew he must have reached the beginning of where the gates' foundation sat. Too far away, he heard his people cry out “Look! Look! What is that?” Some minutes later, the ground started to burn his already abused body and he tried to sit up. Someone cried out that he appeared to be a monk. At that, the ogres behind him barked a series of commands and the host retreated to let the defenders come forward.
He sat, praying, counting, trying to stay conscious. At long last when gentle hands and kind words spoke, “Oh god Toshiro! What did they do to you?!” he collapsed sobbing.
It took several mages and priests to remove the head cage. While they did this, Toshiro recited the lich’s message. It created a flurry of activity as messengers ran to and fro. When they at last pried it open and off Toshiro, and the first healing spell kissed his body, Toshiro passed out from the relief.
He awoke propped on a cushioned divan that had been placed in the royal audience chamber. The high priest of Imperius and several kensai – expert skilled weapons master – adjutants stood in attendance around the daimo’s throne. A healer knelt by Toshiro’s side and offered up some tea. “Here senpai, you must be thirsty and hungry.”
While Toshiro sipped the tea and fought back nausea, he learned that his message had been conveyed to the daimo who had called this emergency session. “Besides Imperius [referring to the Temple generally], the military and our allies have been called. Morbatten should be arriving shortly as well,” the healer added.
Toshiro looked at the healer and wondered why Tania rather than Sora would respond first. The healer shrugged and held a rice cracker to Toshiro's lips. "You know how they are. They love a good fight. I doubt they are here for us, probably the fight draws them."
Sure enough, and after everyone else had arrived and started making introductions, and after the palace guards had sealed the royal chamber’s doors, a hot breeze blew the windows open and the Tanian ambassador strode into the room from a black magical gate hanging two dimensionally in the air.
Walking into the circle, he stopped just before the daimo’s personal space and bowed low. “All hail Ori and the mighty Temple of Imperius! I come with the dragon emperor’s authority and tidings of support for our trade partners! King Rojo and the Queen of Dragons send their blessings and prayers that Ori emerge triumphant in this time of challenge. I am Dar Itain.” The words rolled off his tongue in fluent Imperic, but the steel in the ambassador’s eyes held no warmth. All present struggled to hide their annoyance but took note of the ambassador’s rings, signs, and tokens of achievement and power. Without doubt, here stood a man highly decorated by Tania, a paladin of the dragon queen, and a veteran of what appeared to be no fewer than three campaigns in Bloodstone.
The daimo’s magistrate answered politely and greeted him. Dar Itain turned and paid proper respect to all present and then took his seat. They quickly discussed the siege and noted the total destruction of the southern gate. Rebuilding, even if magically hastened, offered no guarantee that the lich would not casually destroy it again. Imperius observed the lich must be an eldar to which they asked Toshiro to recount his experience and observations.
Toshiro tried to stand on crutches but was gently restrained by the healer. His ruined feet and legs would require months of healing before he might ever walk again. He told his story pausing frequently to answer questions. “Yes, there were two revenant warriors. I saw them but there could have been more. No, I did not notice if the lich reported to anyone or thing else. It was in command. No, I saw no signs of worship or markings. Yes, the lich appeared fully in control of its armies, but also confused by our world.”
On that last point, the conversation turned to ancient myth and legend. The Isle of Khasra had not been a center of any eldar empires or beings, at least not that anyone knew. No ancient legends fell on Khasran soil. If anything, the Imperics had been the only major thing to ever happen to it. Its proximity to the monster and demon wasteland of Mondsa Island tended to overshadow what few things happened here. Agriculture, some small mining operations, and vast uncharted territory from which monsters occasionally harassed adventurers made up most of Khasran lore. The daimo asked Imperius to come forward, “Will the great god come to our aid? Is it even an option?”
The Temple priest representing the Imperic Temple spoke now, “We have sought guidance and believe the great god Imperius would intervene. However, the Temple believes it is too hasty to seek at this time.”
Dar Itain added, “Imperius is a mighty and powerful lord,” the Temple frowned at the implied lack of godhood in title selection, but he pretended not to notice, “but in this case, I agree. The appearance of a contemporary (we must be clear about the eldar versus newer gods) god to an eldar creates too much risk. There is a risk that the lich is powerful enough to ascend but is not yet familiar with its capability to do so. There is also the risk of a divine cascade, which would bring unwelcome attention to such a creature. It would also be destructive to Ori."
The daimo interrupted him, “So Our Lord Imperius will not be involved now?” and the Temple confirmed. “So I must go. Very well. What thinks the council of my speaking with the lich?”
Everyone present spoke against it, except the Tanian ambassador. The risk to the daimo, to it being a trap, to so many other things began to hurtle back and forth as arguments against action. At last, Dar Itain stood and stabbed his sword into the stone floor. The resounding crack quieted the chamber. Speaking almost too quietly to hear and in flawless Imperic he said, “This debate gets us nowhere. Either present a military option or accept that, for now, the lich has an upper hand. Might I add, it is not like a true lich to allow you to recover your fallen and give you an unasked-for cease fire to speak with it. Consider your own stories from Bloodstone heroes. The fallen always augment the necromancer, yet this lich gives you time to reclaim your own. He knows you are healing them."
A general presented a bold plan to rebuild the wall, send a decoy that would appear to be the daimo, and to attack the lich with all the forces of the priests and mages and warriors. “If we ignore the goblins and focus on the leader, we can eradicate the true threat.”
Itain spoke, “The lich is not necessarily a threat. Just because it attacks you now, does not mean it could not become an ally…”
The Ori general drew his katana and in the blink of an eye flashed it between Itain's eyes. “Our people suffer and die and you say it is NOT A THR
EAT?!”
Itain did not flinch, and in fact did not even regard the man. “The dragon emperor stood in these islands during the eldar times. There were no liches, nor undead, well not like what we face now. Necromancy and especially the kind that would touch the elemental realms used on your gate… these things did not exist as eldar concepts. Life, death, various forms of life beyond death, time itself… these were playthings to the eldar, tools of creation and destruction.
”Consider Toshiro’s report. The lich’s confusion at our world extends, it would seem, to its failure to understand that there are gods in opposition to undeath and chaos now. The symbol of Imperius, for example… it burned the revenants and the lich but they did not care. Why? In other words, does the lich even understand or care about your opposition? Because the lich is unaffected, its necromantic creations are not affected. To be blunt, the lich is not in opposition to your Imperius - YET. He stands in the sun, burning, and does not notice or appear to suffer. How is this a typical lich? I recommend you cease use of the term "lich" and instead find its name and use that, or the term 'eldar'. It is their term from themselves after all."
He made casual eye contact with the general and said, "You hear the term lich, but the lich has not said it. This eldar did not have a soul created here and then trade it for immortality and power. It has always had a soul and it has only ever known power and force of will. This is eldar, not undeath, not a sorcerous trade to the Jade God for an extension of life."
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