Plane of the Godless

by Peter Hartz

  Later that morning, she stood in one side of the Elven Throne room, waiting for Giltreas to begin.

  David stood there as well, standing behind his wife with his arms around Allison as he held on to them for support. Michelle had joined them as well, dressed in a simple robe and sandals that she had been wearing since she came to Delara’s house. Allison thought the items had been provided by Delara herself, but she wasn’t sure.

  Giltreas had come to David yesterday and said he wished to travel back to see his mother once again, and report on what he had learned about the humans here on David, Michelle, and Allison’s home plane. David had jumped at the chance to visit his wife again, and to see Michelle once more. It was a Sunday back home, so he didn’t need to be anywhere in particular. The team was at a dead end as far as what to do next, now that they knew who was really behind the attack on Michelle.

  After Congresswoman Smithson had revealed her secrets, Michelle had remembered that she had met with two “gentlemen” from the NSA in her office downtown, some eight months before the attack in the woods outside her cottage. They had been there asking about the encryption technology that Michelle’s data security team was using on the link between the two data centers in Minneapolis and in London, the site of a smaller company MDST had bought out, mainly just to have a presence in the United Kingdom. The company could afford private links between the two continents, but apparently the NSA must have tapped into the circuits somewhere in between in its holy mission to know everything going on in the world. And it was in one of those taps that the NSA discovered a data stream using a cryptographic technology they had never encountered before.

  Michelle had found Mark when he left another company, looking for greener pastures. A brilliant mathematician and budding cryptologist, he had quickly found that he loved the free-flowing, low-pressure work environment at MDST. He approached Michelle about encrypting the intercontinental links shortly before they went live, on the theory that you didn’t know who was listening to your traffic, even on private links that no one else was supposed to have access to.

  A supposedly private link still had to go through several, if not dozens, of network devices operated by the various telephone/Internet service providers that provided the service. And while it was generally expected that your private data would stay private, there were a couple situations where it did not. Michelle had thought of at least two, at the time: hackers, and official court orders.

  Court orders could get complicated when you were dealing with local and national courts in two different jurisdictions. And hackers hell-bent on causing problems and stealing data were simply a wildcard that could not be completely and accurately planned for; one had to just put in the best security processes and procedures, and hope you caught everything in the periodic audits you had conducted.

  The NSA had found that a small company in Minnesota was doing something they couldn’t compromise. Mark had come up with an encryption technology that no one else had ever discovered, and even with the massive computing power the NSA had on tap, they couldn’t make heads or tails of what Mark had created. So they had sent lawyers, to try to bully Michelle into giving them access to the source code, to ensure that no laws were being broken.

  Michelle had turned them down flat. First, because she was not selling the encryption technology, and had absolutely zero interest in doing so (knowing the political environment of the time and the fallout that would result), and second, because the U.K. was not on the list of countries to which the Department of Commerce restricted the export strong encryption technologies. She had always considered the second reason to be ridiculous, at best. The US was not the only country creating encryption technologies, and anyone could buy or even get for free sufficiently secure encryption software that would at least slow down most hackers. The stuff coming out of Israel was some of the very best, and available almost everywhere. But the NSA was not most hackers. The NSA contractor had shown the world that.

  The attack on Michelle had happened mere months after the NSA contractor had leaked his stolen trove of classified NSA documents to the two U.K. journalists. The NSA had become increasingly frantic to find some way to compromise or co-opt every existing encryption technology ensure the protection of the USA against another terrorist attack. In the rampant culture of extremism that was the norm at the NSA, either you complied with the NSA’s not so politely-worded requests (demands, really), which put you squarely in the friends category, or you weren’t, in which case you were nothing more than a terrorist yourself, hell-bent on destroying America and everything she stood for.

  With that kind of mindset infecting everything you did on a daily basis, it was easy to see the how the line led from Michelle refusing to cooperate with NSA lawyers on a piece of software that, while groundbreaking, was not available to anyone but MDST, Inc., and therefore not threat to Democracy and the Land of the Free and the Home of the Free, to having a black-ops team drag you kicking and screaming out of your cottage in the north woods to be raped and killed, along with the rest of your family as soon as they get around to them.

  Delara had been positively ill upon hearing what was going on in Michelle’s world. Anaradelle had likewise been horrified when she showed up unexpectedly to watch one of the copies of the video for herself. The Goddess of Children, Fertility, and Nature had embraced her newest sister, overcome with emotion at the first ascendancy in thousands of years.

  Delara had looked up at that moment at David, only to see something almost as bad: the look on David’s face promised death and worse to his enemies, she realized. And she also realized he had the abilities, and companions (especially in her son, Giltreas), to wreak havoc on those enemies, to the fullest of measures. That did not even consider the heretofore unknown abilities of the recently-ascended Deus in his sister. She had shuddered at that moment, fervently happy that the brother to the newest Goddess in the pantheon was not targeting her. Even without magic, she knew that what an intelligent being absolutely committed to an end could accomplish was nearly limitless. With a Goddess on his side, who was the original target of such evil thoughts and acts, there was no telling what manner of destruction awaited his, and Michelle’s, enemies.

  Elves for the most part, she explained to David, Michelle, and Allison later, did not take sides in the fighting between the human tribes. Humans were always considered less-sophisticated than the dwarves, elves, and halflings that made up the Four Races. They were more likely to resort to violence, were given to the enthusiastic pursuits of the intimacy of the flesh, and their tribes and clans rarely formed alliances with others, human and non-human alike. Most mages, who made up the intellectual corps of the various races, agreed that it was because the humans were so short-lived, and therefore not blessed with the opportunity to mature sufficiently beyond their almost animalistic instincts and tendencies.

  The Gods had ordained that Elves were the caretakers of the other races, and the Elven Throne was the focal point of that role. Elves lived a very long time compared to humans. Most elves made it well past their two thousandth year, and generally, elves over three thousand years old were not all that uncommon. Dwarves and halflings lived somewhere around twelve hundred to fifteen hundred years. The Elven Throne was called upon to mediate disputes, to end bloodshed, and to keep the peace between humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings, as well as to help defend them against the Dark Races of the goblins, orcs and the like. And if the intervention of the Elven Throne was not sufficient, the occupant of the Throne would call upon the Gods and Goddesses of the Pantheon to intervene. That threat alone was sufficient to force everyone to bargain in good faith in order to resolve their differences.

  “But as you know, humans are limited to barely over two hundred summers, although some few last until they are two hundred and fifty, or even three hundred from time to time,” Delara had told them, expecting a nod or word of understanding, instead of the bald-faced shock that greeted her.

  When Allison ha
d explained that the lifespan of humans where they came from was almost always quite a bit less than a hundred years, it was Delara’s turn to be shocked, to the point of speechlessness.

  Now, David’s thoughts returned to the present as Giltreas stepped forward. The Hall of the Throne, as David had learned the room was called, had been filled with mages of the various races, all present to hear about the denizens of the Plane of the Godless, that place of both horror and mystery they only knew about from stories passed down by word of mouth, most of which, they were sure, had grown much worse in the telling.

  “Your Majesty. You have set me upon the task to discover the plane of these humans, and report back to you on what I learn and find. I am prepared to do so.

  “The humans there are both amazing and terrible, sometimes at the same time. They are capable of amazing feats of selfless courage and compassion, and yet some are capable of horrific crimes that harm entire nations.

  “The humans are builders of great works, and wondrous things. I have seen with my own eyes buildings that have more than four floors, and roads wide enough to handle more than six horses abreast. Machines that fly through the air faster than the fastest land animal, and can carry more than twenty people over great distances, sometimes as far as a man with several fast horses can travel in a single day.

  “The ‘War Wagon’, as we have called the black carriage in the stables, is nothing of the sort. It is not much more than what a normal family could afford to purchase for their own usage, should they so desire or require. On a given day, one will see scores and more of machines like that, scurrying to and fro on their incredible roads as they carry people to wherever they need to go.

  “And their cities are huge. I have seen, with my own eyes, vast cities that are home to more than a hundred thousand beings.”

  David at first had no idea why Giltreas was so underselling things, but after some reflection, realized it made sense. Who would believe him if the actual truth were just thrown out there in this environment, without proof. The reality was a massively significant change from what he saw around himself here in one of the largest cities on this plane. While proof was readily at hand (all they had to do was travel to David’s home plane to see it for themselves), it was easier to accept in the short term if the things Giltreas was describing were not so different from what they currently knew.

  “But, in many ways, the bad is as bad as the good is good. They have weapons of war that may kill hundreds at once, and from a distance as far as the eye can see.

  “Many are slothful, decadent, and take joy in the suffering of others. Indeed, some seem to take an evil delight in causing pain and suffering amongst their fellows.

  “Some humans there do not care for one another, not sharing what they have to see that none go hungry, nor that everyone has a place to lay their head at night, to be safe from those which hide in the night to steal their things, and even their lives.

  “Of those that own great merchant houses, very few seem as kind as David and Michelle towards those who they sell their goods to and those in their employ. Most view their customers as sheep to be fleeced, and their workers as little more than serf, or simply tools, to be discarded when broken or no longer usable.

  “Their rulers are no less corrupt. There are some rulers that are above reproach, but they are hard to find, and are easily thrust aside. Indeed, without a spell to detect truth, it is sometimes hard to tell which ones are good, and which are not.

  “This is a plane without any save humans themselves. No elves, dwarves, or halflings exist, save in their myths and legends. Certainly no magical creatures, good or evil, lawful or not, are to be found anywhere.

  “These humans have many different nations and states that all have their own leaders. Each government is somewhat different, in how the leaders are put in place. Some are monarchies, but many are leaders chosen by their peoples. I have found it matters little how these leaders are chosen, and how they are chosen seems to have no bearing on whether or not those leaders will do good for their peoples. I feel that the lack of rulers not of their race, such as the Elven Throne, causes them great harm.

  “The nation of David, Michelle, and Allison, as well as the brigands in your jails, is called The United States of America. It has existed for some two hundred and thirty summers. It came to be out of strife and conflict. Rulers of this nation are elected, a process that has every adult, who has not committed a serious crime, go to a place near their home and cast their votes, a way of telling who they feel should be their rulers, in offices of all kinds for all different types of rulers, from local city mayors to their President, an office that is considered their highest ruler. This is called an election, in which they elect their rulers.

  “But each election is never clear of discord. The people who would seek those elected offices, and others who seem to think their thoughts should be heard about those who wish to be elected, make statements that are almost always nothing more than dishonorable statements that cannot be disproven, or they rail against real or perceived flaws, no matter how insignificant, in those they contend with for the same office. I am strongly reminded of pigs rolling in filth, each trying to get the best slops from the trough, or the nicest patch of mud.

  “I am saddened to learn that this nation, which is still stricken with corruption and filth, is held as the highest achievement by many others on this plane. Others are much worse.

  “As you know, Your Majesty, the Elven Throne in its role as ordained from agreement by the Gods, has always, since the dawn of time and the origin of the higher races, been outside and above the arguments and disagreements that the various races get involved in, both with themselves and with other races. But the Throne is always there to intervene, and to be a place where beings of all races can go to air their disputes and ask for assistance in resolving their differences. And if necessary, the Elven Throne can ask the Gods to intervene, which they are willing to do. But these humans do not have that to help them. The results have been horrible to discover.

  “There have been wars innumerable over the thousands of years since the Elven Throne was taken from them. Indeed, there are scores small wars ongoing even now, with no hope of peace for those peoples. And in the last hundred years, there have been two wars so vast they have been called World Wars that stretched over most of the entire plane. And in each of them, many beings have died, both those who went to fight at the urging or demands of their leaders, and those whose only crime was to be living in an area where those forces would meet to fight. And many more beings have been grievously wounded, losing arms, legs, other body parts, eyes, hearing, and even going mad, with sicknesses of the mind that take their intelligence away in a whirl of nightmares and images and memories that overwhelm them and destroy them little by little, day by day, until there is nothing left.

  “Even this America has been at war with one or another nation for most of its existence. In the two hundred thirty seven full turnings of its existence, it has known peaceful times without war for only eleven full turnings of the season. It is as if those on this plane have spent their entire existences competing with one another to be the most efficient killers of their enemies.

  “For every bad person, though, there seems to be many good ones that have some extra, and mostly, they are willing to share it with those whose lives have been touched by war, foul weather in the extreme, or the violence visited upon them by their fellows. A home burns down, and others will come along and help them rebuild, while others take them in while they wait. It is not perfect, and sometimes, completely getting back to where they were does not happen.

  “It is a plane of contradictions, where the highest ideals are spoken of, but rarely do they strive for them wholly. While the humans there seem good singly or in small groups, in mobs they are often brutish and barbaric in their behaviors, falsely feeling protected by being part of the mob. I know not what to make of them most times. They are capable of great compassion and care in one
moment, and yet will shock you with horrific acts of cruelty in the next. As individuals, those with whom I have made acquaintances are the best of any, and I would be honored to be known with them. As a people, they are in need of direction, leadership, and compassionate care.”

  It was not the most polished speech David had ever heard, but it pretty much summed up his own feelings about his version of humanity quite well. He sighed silently. Then he looked up as Giltreas bowed to the queen, the court, and the others who were there to hear his observations.

  It was those others David was most curious about. He had noticed several men and women of Elven, Dwarven, and Human ancestry he hadn’t met previously standing nearby the raised dais upon which the Elven Throne sat when he had been ushered in to the throne room. They were all standing while facing Giltreas as he spoke. Several times he was certain that he saw disbelief on the various faces at one time or another. He wondered to himself what was going to happen now.

  Giltreas simply stood silently, his hands together behind his back, and waited for what was to happen next. His posture was unconcerned without coming across as bored with the happenings, an almost attentive, calm state that David admired. He never felt that he had mastered that during his time in the Corps.

  For several heart beats, the assembled men and women simply looked at Giltreas, as if unsure what to say or do next. Then one by one they turned and started talking to each other, in some cases with quite animated and agitated gestures and demeanors. It was obvious to David that a debate was beginning to rage, and he wondered what was the point or points of contention. He didn’t have long to wait.

  A Dwarf in a belted tunic with his pants tucked into what looked like leather boots turned suddenly back to Giltreas, and barked a question at him.

  “I have never heard of any race being able to construct a building with more than four floors. Do you exaggerate to raise these humans up further than they deserve? Everyone knows a building with more than four floors cannot stand. There is no way to make it strong enough to stand on its own, let alone be strong enough to have people walk on it.