03- The Apostles of Doom

by J. Langland

  That caused all chattering in the room to cease as everyone was struck by the sheer horror of the moment. In many ways, it personified the situation that those at the Citadel were in now.

  “I am not so sure,” Darg-Krallnom said, shaking his head. “If this thing was blocking interdimensional access, Orcus should still have been able to reach any of the other worlds in the localverse—Astlan, Nysegard, the rest.”

  Tom looked at Darg-Krallnom, puzzled. “Those are different worlds, different planes. So if you cut off all communication with other planes, they would have been cut off.”

  Arg-nargoloth shook his head. “They are other worlds, different planets, but they are all in the same localverse. They simply orbit different stars, possibly in different galaxies. That’s why it’s called a localverse.”

  “However,” Phaestus interjected, “while they are different planets, unless they are within the same star system, interstellar distances are so vast that such links are extremely mana-intensive. Therefore, the links can, and do, take the shortest available path. For demons, that means going through the Abyss or the Astral Plane; for gods, it generally means their Outer Plane or the Astral Plane.”

  “I would doubt, if he was actively engaged in combat, that he’d be able to force the link across interstellar distances,” added Völund. “Too much concentration would be required. As for intergalactic distances, that would be off the table without an amplifier. I also doubt he had any idea of where those worlds were relative to Nysegard, since the links have always been able to shortcut through other planes.”

  “Either way, in the heat of battle he was stranded,” Tom said, and the others nodded.

  Zelda sighed. “That solves the biggest mystery. They all battled to the death and could not return.”

  Darg-Krallnom nodded somberly. “We never could figure out why none returned. They were trapped and slaughtered. Twenty-two thousand, four hundred and sixty-three D’Orcs, and who knows how many hundreds of thousands of mortals.”

  Tom closed his eyes and thought about that. He’d known there had been well over twenty-five thousand D’Orcs at one time, but this was the first time he’d heard the exact death count. It had been a slaughter, almost a genocide. Presumably some mortal followers had survived; there were good numbers of orcs still on Etterdam.

  “It is a bit ironic that the Citadel, followers of the Five Siblings, are now reaping the same fate that Tiernon sowed upon Orcus in Etterdam,” Morok Deathstealer noted.

  “No,” Targh said curtly. “They—their ancestors are not responsible for what happened on Etterdam. That was Sentir Fallon and Nét. The followers of the Five Siblings on Nysegard honored their oaths!” He shook his head. “They honored them then; they have honored them since. It is not justice that the same fate befall them. They have been true to their word.”

  Tom raised a calming hand towards Targh. “No one is saying that we are abandoning them to their fate. We simply need to be cautious and ensure that it is not a trap. Our total forces are one-fifth what they were at Etterdam, and we need to ensure that Mount Doom and the Isle of Doom are invulnerable to a repeat of Etterdam.”

  “Agreed,” Morok said. “Karmic justice aside, we do have free will. I was simply noting the irony.”

  “This situation requires great caution,” Arg-nargoloth said. “As Lord Tommus says, we cannot walk into the same trap that befell Orcus. Not so soon.”

  Tom nodded. “I think what they are seeing now is the same thing Orcus saw. Although I will note that Nét and Sentir Fallon did have access to the Outer Planes, since they had plenty of mana to draw upon.”

  “Perhaps they built in an exclusion for themselves,” Phaestus mused. “We still do not know exactly what they did then, or are doing now.”

  “It would behoove us to find out,” Völund said.

  “Yes—but most carefully,” Phaestus said.

  “Agreed,” Tom said, drawing attention back to himself. “Let us break for the moment and determine our best options. We must do this wisely and safely. If it is like last time, any dead D’Orcs or demons”—he looked at Darflow—“will not be returning. We cannot allow that.” He suddenly noticed Talarius looking rather agitated, but continued, “We must know what we can put together in terms of a force, and what we need to do in terms of ensuring that we do not repeat Etterdam.” He looked to Darg-Krallnom. “How much time? Half a period?”

  Darg-Krallnom looked around the table at the other commanders, getting a visible read on their confidence levels, before finally nodding. “That will work.”

  “Uhm... Lord Tommus?” Valg raised his hand as Tom stood to leave, allowing his commanders to plan.

  “Yes, Valg?”

  “One more rather important detail,” Valg said.

  “Yes? We need all the information we can get,” Tom said.

  “Apparently there are something like fourteen different avatars of the Five Siblings there, including the prophet of each of the Siblings, the head archons for Nysegard for each of the Siblings, as well as four others,” Valg said, causing indrawn breaths from those assembled. “They too are completely cut off.”

  Tom closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Great. So if we break the siege and restore their access, they immediately try to arrest me.”

  ~

  Tom and Tamarin left the conference room with Phaestus and Völund so that they might discuss the situation in private while the commanders made their plans. Tom was no military commander; he would rely on the recommendation of commanders with thousands of years’ experience.

  “Lord Tommus!” Talarius called from behind him.

  “Follow us if you want to talk,” Tom said.

  “Lord Tommus, I beg of you, do not abandon these good souls to the Unlife!” Talarius pleaded.

  “I have not made any decisions yet, Talarius.” Tom looked to the knight. He was fully armored due to the heat, so Tom could not see his face, but his voice was definitely strained with emotion.

  “I understand there is much history, bad history between my god and you, and your predecessor; but I beg of you to consider that they—these people on Nysegard—have kept their oath to your people here!” Talarius said.

  “I’m well aware of that, and it is very important,” Tom said as they moved briskly down the corridor towards Tom’s room. “But the situation is dangerous and we must evaluate what we can do safely.”

  “My lord, just grant me this,” Talarius begged. “Should you decide against intervention, at least allow me to go there and fight by their side.”

  Tom stopped for a moment at the door to his room, and looked at the knight. He was clearly being earnest. Tom nodded and said, “I will consider that as well.”

  Talarius nodded, as much as he could in his suit of armor.

  Tom opened the door and proceeded inside. He noted that Talarius followed him, Tamarin, Völund and Phaestus into the room. One problem with having the knight living in the same suite as himself.

  As the door closed behind them, he ignored Talarius and looked to Phaestus. “I know very well that the Nyjyr Ennead hate the Five Siblings, and I understand if you do not wish to be involved in aiding them,” Tom told the god.

  Phaestus shrugged. “Well, I’ll grant you my wife will have no desire to be at your side in this battle.” He made a rueful expression. “However, should you choose to aid the Citadel, I will assist you. It will not be the first time I have put the needs of Mount Doom ahead of one of the pantheons I belong to. Eris would be one such example.”

  “Thank you,” Tom said, feeling an immense amount of relief.

  “Given what happened last time, I believe that I should be stationed here to ensure the operation of Doom continues,” Völund said, looking to Phaestus, “and that you should be in the Nysegard Doom to ensure it is not sabotaged like at Etterdam.”

  “Agreed,” Phaestus said. “Between us and the heavy guards both here and at the Doomalogue, we should be able to stop Lilith, or at worst, delay her
long enough for retreat.”

  “One thing that concerns me,” Tom said, and the others looked to him. “There are avatars there; do we have any idea if one is Sentir Fallon? If this is another trap, I would have no idea how to recognize him.”

  “Good point,” Phaestus agreed.

  “Actually, that reminds me,” Tom said, looking around. “Erestofanes was going to deliver Orcus’s Memory Mirror. I asked him if we had any paintings of Tiernon, and he suggested that Orcus may have had a mirroring of him.”

  Phaestus sighed. “Yes, there will be a mirroring or two of Tiernon on the Memory Mirror.”

  Tom looked at him oddly. “Why did you sigh when you said that?”

  Völund snorted. “Because it’s going to complicate the situation for you, and raise all sorts of questions that the Citadel doesn’t have time to deal with.”

  “Okay, now you’ve really got me curious,” Tom said.

  “Me too,” Tamarin agreed.

  Phaestus simply shook his head and frowned. “I assume he would have put it back in its original location.” He gestured towards the door to Tom’s bedroom.

  Tom went and opened the door and peered in. Sure enough, there was a large, gold-framed mirror on the wall opposite the balcony. Tom entered his bedroom, gesturing for the others to follow, which they did.

  Tom walked over to the mirror. “How do you use this?” he asked.

  Phaestus sighed yet again. He was really not enthusiastic about this. “You hold the Rod, concentrate on the mirror and tell it what you want to see. In this case, I would suggest a particular image.”

  “Which one?” Tom asked.

  “It is one that Orcus referred to as ‘The Wedding Party,’ ” Phaestus said.

  “The wedding party? Tiernon was at a wedding?” Tom asked, puzzled. Why would Orcus have a mirroring of a wedding that Tiernon was at? That would have to be a spy in a very high place.

  “Quite a few important people you probably want to know about there,” Völund said somewhat sarcastically.

  “So how do I do this?” Tom asked.

  Phaestus moved closer. “Like with any magic mirror on a wall, you say ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall, show me the wedding party, from one to all.’ That will bring up all the images of the wedding party, starting with the first.”

  Tom nodded his head and turned to address the mirror. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, show me the wedding party, from one to all.”

  The mirror blurred for a moment, and then revealed exactly what might have been expected. It was a wedding party after a wedding. There was a bride and groom, a very large bearded older man and a pale, almost Goth-like bride with a rather odd smile. On the groom’s side stood three men of varying ages and two women. On the bride’s side there were three people.

  Tom blinked at the three. The first was himself—or rather, the human version of Orcus that looked like an older, bearded version of Edwyrd. The second was a younger man who looked very much like Rupert in his human form. The third was Phaestus.

  Tom shook his head in puzzlement. “Whose wedding is this? I thought you said that Tiernon would be there. I see Orcus and you, and someone who looks a lot like Rupert in his human form.”

  Völund chuckled. Phaestus glared at him.

  “The man next to the groom is Tiernon. Next is Namora, then Torean, Krinna and Hendel; the Five Siblings in their most common, casual forms.” Phaestus said.

  There was a clanking noise as Talarius took his helmet off and stared at the image. “Are you telling me that Tiernon and Orcus were at a wedding together?”

  “Not exactly. What you are looking at is the wedding party—as in the bride, groom and attending family members.” Phaestus said calmly.

  “The two families?” Tom asked. Talarius, Tamarin and Tom were all staring at Phaestus in shock.

  “The groom is Aetherus All Father, the father of the Five Siblings,” Phaestus said.

  “You mean one of the people Tiernon had us lock up in Tartarus?” Tom asked in surprise.

  “The same,” Phaestus said.

  “So is the bride Eris? Your sister?” Tamarin asked.

  Phaestus nodded. “Daughter of Zeus and Hera, also known as Discordia.”

  Tom shook his head, trying to clear it and make sense of this image. “Okay, so I know why you are in the wedding party, but why is Orcus there, next to her?”

  “Because Orcus is the son of Eris,” Völund said as if it were the most obvious thing the world.

  Tom felt as if he’d suddenly been struck by lightning. This made so little sense. Orcus was actually a god? “So you are…” Tom trailed off, looking at Phaestus.

  “Orcus’s uncle.” Phaestus nodded. “Only one of my sister’s kids I ever liked. Well, Logoi is a decent kid, most of the time. Orcus was the only one of her children to show up at her wedding—and agree to put her away when it became necessary.”

  “Oh, and by the way, the rest of our family doesn’t know it was Orcus and the Five Siblings that had her locked up,” Phaestus added, almost as an afterthought.

  There was a loud clunking noise as Talarius fell to his knees on the floor, shaking his head. He closed his eyes for a moment before looking up at Phaestus. “So you are saying that Tiernon and Orcus were stepbrothers?”

  “Stepbrothers,” Tom repeated, trying to get that through his head.

  Tamarin shook her head. “So let me be sure I understand this. The Five Siblings conspired with their stepbrother to imprison their mutual parents in Tartarus, and then later ordered their stepbrother murdered?”

  Völund chuckled. “You’ve got it.”

  “That is so bizarre and twisted,” Tamarin said.

  Phaestus shrugged. “Nah. Actually, it’s pretty common in my family. In fact, I’d say it is simply standard family drama. The only way it could be any more routine for us would be if Tiernon had not intended for this to be the outcome. That Orcus had been killed by some horrible mistake. That would have been what my family refers to as a tragedy. Something they tend to have an unhealthy obsession with. It’s why I spend most of my time with my wife’s family.”

  Tom sat back on his bed in shock. This was way too insane! He shook his head, and looked again at the mirroring, furrowing his brow.

  “So who is the young man between Orcus and you?” Tom asked.

  “Ah.” Phaestus nodded. “That is Dis, Dis Pater. He is Orcus’s son. He was also slain on Etterdam, along with so many others.”

  Heavens’ Home

  Tiernon and Torean sat silently waiting for their siblings to arrive at their meeting room on their father’s Outer Plane. Despite his “disappearance,” they had kept their father’s plane up and running for several reasons. The first was that it was a place where they could meet without the knowledge of their own avatars; the second that their father’s avatars needed somewhere to live, as did souls in their afterlife unwilling to reincarnate and get on with things. One could not legitimately advertise an eternity in heaven and then seek to cap the length of eternity before booting people back to the material planes.

  Of course, given that their father and stepmother were only “missing,” there was no legitimate public reason to close the issue without even more questions arising. On the off chance they ever released their father and came to terms with him, he would also want his stuff back. Of course, Tiernon reflected, the only two reasons his father would ever be released would be if he apologized and agreed to a divorce from that nightmare wife of his, or Orcus let him go out of spite.

  The door to the room opened and Krinna and Namora entered. They nodded and sat down. A few moments later, Hendel entered through the second door. No one said anything for a few moments.

  Finally, Krinna started the ball rolling. “So, you managed to lose an entire world for us?” she asked sarcastically.

  “As I understand it, this whole venture was your undertaking?” Hendel asked Tiernon and Torean.

  Torean shook his head. “As you know, Tiernon and I had be
en withholding on-the-ground resources on Nysegard. We’ve discussed this many times. A situation arose where we were forced to act in good faith and allow our attending archons and prophets to directly intervene. They invited your colleagues.”

  Namora pursed her lips and nodded, but not in a particularly agreeable way; it was more of an accusatory nod. She finally spoke. “And what was this situation that changed your minds? After centuries of trying to persuade us to your point of view?”

  Tiernon grimaced. “As you may have known, I had a Knight Rampant abducted by a demon.”

  Hendel made a questioning gesture with both hands. “It happens. It’s not the end of the multiverse. Besides, what does that have to do with Nysegard?”

  “The knight and his demon abductor showed up on Nysegard,” Torean said. “Our agents were trying to retrieve the knight and investigate the demon.”

  “Who also happened to break into your god pool and steal your mana?” Krinna noted, again sarcastically. “Someone is feeling vengeful.”

  Tiernon closed his eyes. “It has gotten a bit more complicated than that.”

  “In any event,” Torean explained, “our avatars needed to go through the Citadel, as that is the closest location we have to where the knight is being held. The Citadel was preparing for siege and essentially guilted our avatars into helping.”

  Krinna looked at him sharply. “It was my understanding that it was the god and his or her avatars to use guilt against their worshipers, not the other way around?”

  Torean sighed. “When you talk the talk, you have to walk the walk, or you lose credibility. You know this very well. Father taught us all together.”

  Tiernon shook his head. “Enough beating around the issue. The truth is that the knight and the demon showed up on the Isle of Doom when the demon restarted the Doom of Nysegard.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Namora asked in shock. Krinna and Hendel had equivalent expressions on their faces.