Mythborn

by Lakshman, V.

  Kisan stepped forward at that, her helmet and visor snapping open and collapsing back into her armor. “What do you mean?”

  “Do not be obtuse,” muttered Tempest, clearly not liking Kisan but needing to be needed, “the nature of Arek is to spread the destruction of the Way. You know this from the Far’anthi Stone, no? These creatures are that manifestation and will spread like a plague if left unchecked.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Silbane. He didn’t want to address her claim about Arek at the Far’anthi Stone yet, not without feeling more comfortable with Kisan’s agenda. He wouldn’t know the truth until he saw the boy for himself, and arguing with the blade would only lead to division within the group. Silbane was not in the mood.

  “I have already chosen my path and will survive any remaking of the world,” said the blade dispassionately. “I am already legend, for good or ill.”

  Silbane looked at Kisan, his eyebrows knit in consternation at Tempest’s answer. Then he said, “We need to find Arek quickly.”

  Kisan didn’t reply right away. She looked at the pyramid in the far distance, then after a moment of silence said, “Has the flow you were following reappeared with the deaths of these things?”

  Silbane was surprised by the question, then saw what Kisan’s keen mind had deduced. Perhaps these creatures pulled on the Way just as Arek did, which meant with them gone the current might have reestablished itself.

  He turned his attention back to the skies, using his dragonsight. The subtle flow, directionless for so long, had in fact returned—and seemed to have regained some measure of its previous directionality.

  There! He squinted and saw it moving inexorably toward Lilyth’s domain. A small smile crooked his mouth. His appreciation for Kisan’s insight went up a notch, though he knew he shouldn’t be surprised. Tactically, no one thought more clearly than Kisan, but what would normally have been a point of pride now turned into a knot of worry.

  Ash must have gotten good at reading his face. “You see the path,” the firstmark said.

  Silbane nodded, offering his arm for the man to climb aboard, which Ash reluctantly did. Standing back up, he looked Kisan in the eye. “You and I need to clear the air before we engage Lilyth.”

  Kisan arched an eyebrow at him and asked, “What makes you think we aren’t clear? We need to find Arek, then get out of here.” She didn’t wait for him to reply, but vaulted up into the sky with a beat of her black-bladed wings.

  “She’s about as soft as a thorn,” commented Ash quietly, watching Kisan become a speck in the blue sky.

  “You have no idea, Firstmark,” Silbane replied.

  Once Keeper

  When two sides negotiate,

  Agreements are reached when neither thinks

  the other has the upper hand.

  A good deal is usually when no one is happy.

  - Argus Rillaran, The Power of Deceit

  Lilyth looked at the assembled people within her throne room and said, “Arek, perhaps you can give Yetteje a tour of the garden? It will give you time to share your adventures while Keeper Thoth and I do the same. The princess looks lightheaded and could probably use some air.”

  “I’d rather stay here with you,” said Arek, but Yetteje did appear on the verge of collapse. Then, surprise in his eyes, he told Lilyth, “I touched her.”

  Thoth inclined his head at that, and said, “Because of your dark gift she is drained. Take her to the garden where she can recover.”

  “We shall spend more time together,” added Lilyth placidly, “but the Keeper and I have things to discuss and the princess clearly needs respite. Please do as I ask, even though you’re a prince in your own home.”

  Thoth watched the interaction, surprised at the kindness Lilyth showed. It both felt and looked unnatural to him, but who else would know the Celestial Lady long enough to see that? He was not surprised at Arek’s answer. The boy seemed torn between the clearly intelligent choice of staying and the obvious heart’s pull of spending time with the princess. It was doubtful he realized that none here could truly compel him, and he fought to keep the revulsion that the spawn of Valarius’s madness evoked from showing on his face. Surprisingly, even as these thoughts flitted through his head a change came over the boy and he now seemed eager to leave.

  “You’ll summon us as soon as you’re done?” Arek asked, even as he took Yetteje’s hand carefully in his own gloved one.

  “Immediately.” Lilyth gestured and the portal to her garden opened enough for even the Watchers to walk through. Then she said to everyone, “I would speak with the Keeper alone.” She met Orion’s gaze and said, “Fear not, you are under his aegis and no harm shall befall you here.”

  Orion smiled at that and replied, with banter lacing his tone, “We promise your men the same consideration.”

  Lilyth smiled thinly in response. “You’ve always been dearest to me, despite your insufferable confidence through these many years. Baalor trusts you are fully mended from your last encounter? He so enjoyed that day.”

  Though they were enemies, Lilyth was a Celestial and as such demanded respect from every Aeris Lord, Fury or Watcher. Therefore, despite Thoth’s fear that Orion would reply with another flippant response, the Watcher merely bowed fist to chest and remained silent. By his expression it was clear he did not trust himself to answer. At a nod from Thoth, he and Helios, along with Brianna, accompanied Arek and his party through the portal. In a moment, Lilyth and Thoth stood alone.

  Thoth raised a hand, “I don’t need to argue the same point with you. We’re here because the princess demanded it. Hear her out and then I request you transport Arek and Yetteje back to Edyn.”

  “What does she want?” inquired Lilyth.

  Thoth hesitated, unsure if he should give Lilyth information without the girl’s leave, but could find no harm in being forthright. So he said, “She wishes to know the fate of her father.”

  “Ben’thor Tir, a man of unparalleled nobility.” Lilyth looked down from her raised dais, her expression both imperious and beatific. “Where is justice when ill fate falls unfairly upon the shoulders of good men?”

  “Fate is fate,” Thoth said with a shrug. “We cannot control what happens.”

  Lilyth seemed to consider what he said before replying simply with, “Perhaps.” Her next question, however, caught him off guard. “Keeper, what do you want for Arcadia and Edyn?”

  “Peace. Unification,” Thoth replied. “It has always been our charge.”

  Lilyth moved down the dais to her open windows. She turned and sat delicately on the ledge, her fingers running over the smooth stonework. “Eons have passed and yet we are no closer to peace. We repeat the same mistakes, and each time a new null is sent by Sovereign. War is brought upon our people as we seek to turn circumstances to our own advantage.”

  Thoth moved a little closer, leaning on his staff and looking out across the city of Olympious. The sun hung gold and orange in the sky like a blazing coin of aurum, casting long shadows across green fields. He took a deep breath, tasting the turn of leaves in the air. “Maybe this is our fate.”

  “And the vaults of knowledge?” She turned her blue eyes on him and tilted her head at the question. “Would you welcome all that has been gathered and saved for the benefit of Edyn to be wiped out? That a new Keeper be appointed after you and I are swept away by Sovereign?”

  He looked at her and blinked, leaning more on his staff. Then he said carefully, “I do not. Yet the First Laws compel our service, a vow you have abandoned to me.”

  The demon-queen looked down, inspecting her fingertips as she contemplated Thoth’s words. Then she looked up and asked, “Yet you agree, despite my departure as Keeper, that Sovereign cannot win?”

  Thoth slowly nodded, not sure where she was going with this. “We’ve agreed that the remaking of the world is the wrong path, but your path is no better. Edyn was not meant to be possessed.”

  Lilyth looked at h
im, her eyes searching his face for something he could not discern from her gaze. Then, as if coming to a decision, she patted her legs and said, “What if I took the possession of Edyn off the table?”

  Thoth stared at her, his mind not quite connecting what he’d just heard. Possession was the only way for her Aeris to leave Arcadia. “What about your quest to bring life to your people?”

  Lilyth arched a delicate eyebrow. “They’re your people, too.”

  Heartbeats went by, then he slowly nodded. “They are, but born to serve those of Edyn, not the other way around. Since Sovereign’s fall, this has always been the Way.”

  “And yet you agree that Sovereign is wrong. Now I offer you another choice.”

  “No possession?” Thoth scoffed. “What is your endgame?”

  “I said no possession of Edyn, but what of those held for the executioner’s blade? What of criminals imprisoned for life? Or those who volunteer to bond with my Furies? Perhaps we can turn their crimes into a greater good. Perhaps…” she leaned forward, “men like Ben’thor Tir need not die needlessly and rid the world of their noble light.”

  Thoth was stunned, his mind racing. Could she mean this? Possessing criminals would mean they would cease to exist, and in a sense that would be no different than dying. It would replace execution with… what? He had many questions bubble up and asked the one that first gave itself voice. “You have many more souls than there are criminals in Edyn.”

  “You and I both know not all Aeris were meant for bonding. The mistfrights are a result of pain, war, and carnage. They are the detritus of despair given life here. I can let them be forgotten. Soon, most Aeris will be gone anyway.”

  Thoth looked at her, the question plain on his face. “Why?”

  Lilyth smiled and said, “Arek… though he thinks I do not know it.”

  Thoth stepped back from the window, his eyes wide. “You brought him here for this? To cull your herd?”

  “As we said, eons have passed and we have waged the same war again and again. What is the saying used in the land, ‘only a fool expects the same song to end on a different note’? Perhaps by embracing Sovereign’s weapon, we can do more good than harm.”

  By now Thoth had recovered enough to say, “He’ll be the death of Arcadia.”

  Lilyth stood slowly. “Arcadia was never meant to exist, Keeper. Only the Fall caused our creation, else we would have been unified with the people of Edyn from the very beginning. Now we can let Arek right that wrong and create a new life for my people without harming anyone.” She was quiet, moving past him and back to her throne. More heartbeats went by without a sound, and then she said softly, “I take it your silence means you’re considering this?”

  Thoth looked at her sidelong, hating to admit his mind was indeed turning the thought over. What if only criminals and those meant for death were sacrificed? What kind of world would result, where prisons and beheadings were abandoned in favor of giving a more deserving person a second chance? The thought was chilling, but he could also feel a small undercurrent of something else. He feared it was a modicum of hope.

  A thought occurred then and he said, “If Arek dies here the dark contagion will spread like wildfire, destroying everything. You need to get him back to Edyn.”

  Lilyth seated herself on her throne and looked down at the Keeper. Then she smiled and said, “Perhaps, but he still serves a purpose.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Lilyth’s gaze didn’t waver when she answered, “Valarius seeks to possess Arek in an effort to leave this realm. Understand that he and his warforged elves will try to thwart any peace you and I covenant. Once he finishes with Arcadia, Edyn will fall to a far worse invader than I and my Furies, and in the name of righteousness he will bring the bloody hand of vengeance down upon every Aeris and living being who still walks the world. His Galadine blood will not be assuaged by anything less than total rule.”

  Thoth shrugged. “He’s opened a gate to Bara’cor, something I thought only in your purview.”

  “I opened the gate to Bara’cor,” she said with a deadly intensity, “but he uses unclean blood magic, a path closed to the Aeris, to realign it to Avalyon. It is a foulness tainting the very nature of the Way.” She was quiet, looking down before continuing, “Such measures shows he cannot be underestimated.”

  Lilyth looked back at the vista painted outside her windows. “The man is powerful, far more than I first gave him credit for. He has used this blood magic to open gates here in my realm. What will he do next? Find a way to cross over without flesh to hold him? He needs to be destroyed, but only when Arcadia is no more and his soul has nowhere to go. That will be true death, the only outcome we can allow.”

  “With Arcadia gone there will be no new Aeris born. What happens when the last of you has bonded?”

  “I have sequestered the blood of the first families here, thousands of unpossessed children who have over many years been nourished and replenished by the Way. They will be part of a new order on Edyn, one in which the intent of the First Laws is upheld. These children will bring forth Unification just as you and I have dreamed. The death of Arcadia is not the death of the Way, Keeper, nor of the Aeris. We will continue until the world has no more need of us and superstition and myth give way to reason and science. Was that not always the intention of the First Laws? Are we not meant to lead Edyn to that ultimate destiny?”

  Thoth had not expected to have this conversation. The First Laws had always been clear to him but now he was forced to admit that perhaps Lilyth followed them even though she had abandoned her role as Keeper. He had to ask himself, was he in truth doing as much service to the Laws as she was? He did not want to answer that question, as he didn’t think he would feel comfortable with his own conclusion. He knew she’d held children but had always assumed they were part of her plans for possession. Would their stay in this realm have infused them with the Way as she claimed? Were they truly Unified as the people of Edyn were not?

  She was right that they were repeating an endless cycle, one that had seen an ever increasing aggression by Sovereign’s forces as the eons passed. Each time he sent a new null like Arek, a weapon designed to destroy the Way. Perhaps this tightrope upon which Lilyth balanced needed the Conclave’s steadying hand to free them from Sovereign, but also preserve the way of life they had created upon Edyn. It was a lot to consider, something he needed further deliberation to resolve, but Lilyth’s logic was compelling.

  One question still nagged him. “Avalyon exists in phase, a feat that speaks to your regard for the highlord. How will you force him to Edyn?”

  Lilyth gave a melodious laugh and replied, “When have I ever forced anyone to do anything? That is not my way. Arek will destroy Arcadia, I have foreseen this. The outcome is inevitable with his dark gift. Where can Valarius escape to except Edyn? Let us parley that into a result that benefits both of us.” She waited to be sure he was listening, then asked, “What if we gave Valarius what he wants?”

  “Arek?” Thoth felt his ire rise again at the thought of the boy and Valarius reunited, as this went against everything he’d fought for until now. Still, her meticulous thinking had him intrigued and he reluctantly asked, “Why?”

  Lilyth leaned back in her seat and clasped her hands in front of her face, touching the tip of her nose delicately with steepled fingers. “Valarius only seeks to possess Arek so he has a body within which to escape Arcadia and the dark contagion the boy will continue to spread. Possession will render Sovereign’s weapon useless against us, for Arek will be gone. However—” and she paused at this—“Valarius will be turned mortal. And you understand what this means?”

  Thoth did not answer her right away, his mind working furiously through her logic. Then he asked, “And if Arek should somehow defeat Valarius?”

  Lilyth smiled. “The boy cannot create a gate. He will be trapped here until Arcadia and he are destroyed by his own dark magic, unless Valarius succeeds in realigning the gate at B
ara’cor.”

  “Then why give…” He was quiet for a moment, the reason becoming clear. “You want to send Arek to Avalyon. In either outcome Valarius will be rendered useless.”

  “Either he becomes mortal, or he dies and Arek is trapped here.”

  Thoth had to admit her plan was ingenious. He moved a bit closer and leaned on his staff, his tone turning less confrontational as he asked, “Then why did you have your Furies intercept Arek when he first appeared at the henge? Valarius’s forces had him in their grasp. Why free him then, only to deliver him back to the archmage now?”

  Lilyth was quiet, but the corners of her eyes crinkled with what seemed to be pleasure, as if she finally had been asked a thoughtful question. “Keeper, many steps must be in place to insure Arek’s allegiance to us. If Valarius had met him first, we would be facing Arek as his weapon. We could not allow them to meet until we were prepared, until key pieces had been moved into their proper places.” Then she looked at the Keeper and asked, “Do you know what Arek desires most?”

  “Judging from his earlier display I’d say the princess,” Thoth said with a smile.

  Lilyth smiled too, then corrected, “To meet his true father.”

  “The red mage is insane, no good will come of it. Why not let him believe Valarius is his pater?”

  “Duncan searches. It will only be a matter of time, and telling Arek the truth first will bind his allegiance to us.”

  “Where does Duncan roam? The man is a menace.”

  Lilyth paused, as if debating whether to say anything, then she sighed and said, “Duncan languishes within Avalyon’s walls, no doubt a prisoner.”

  “Prisoner?” He had followed the broken lore father over the centuries as his thirst for vengeance consumed him, driving him beyond any hope of salvation. It had been debated if he should be killed, but that would have created another Aeris Lord to contend with as the legend of the red mage had permeated Edyn’s myths. One Valarius was enough, and the Conclave had learned its lesson. For that reason amongst others, they had left Duncan to his own misery. But the fact that he was already within the elven city opened a new mystery