Downfall And Rise

by Nathan Thompson

  That was... brutal. Especially given the size of this world. I mean, my country back home still fielded a total army of about a million troops total.

  “But an even worse aspect of the Horde is its willingness to submit to other dark powers,” Mother Glade interjected. “Even at the later stages, there are many monsters far more powerful than all but the strongest species of Horde. But if something or someone appears before a Horde pit or champion and demonstrates sufficient amounts of both strength and depravity, the Horde will submit to the creature as their new ruler. Usually this ruler winds up amplifying the Horde, unlocking powers it would not otherwise have and employing strategies it would not otherwise have thought of. It is said that the ruling creature will also develop new power and abilities from its bond with the Pit. This is why the Dark Icons were so eager to bless the Horde in the past.”

  “And we make them pay for it whenever they do,” The Stag Lord rumbled. “My brother will answer for this.”

  I remembered how both the pit and its champion had responded to me and felt very sick. But apparently no one noticed, because Stell continued talking.

  “Generally, if a Plague or even a Contagion forms, several countries, or tribes, in the case of the Woadlands, will band together, supported by the Icons and hopefully a Challenger to end the threat, which is by then a Trial or even a Tumult-level challenge.”

  “Has every world always been able to stop the Horde?” I asked, then realized it would have been a stupid question. These things sounded like Sauron on steroids, only creepier. A world that was overcome by the Horde was probably no longer around.

  “No,” Stell answered simply, to my dismay and surprise. The other Icons lowered their heads. Even Pan looked somber at that moment.

  “Do you have any further questions for my Challenger?” Stell asked, her projection nodding calmly at the other figures.

  “The creation of a Horde pit is disturbing,” The Stag Lord rumbled again. Apparently, the other Icons were content to let him do most of the talking. But the way they stood together gave me a suspicion that Mother Glade was at least his equal, and Lady Titania wasn't that far behind.

  I had no idea how Pan ranked, and I don't think he cared to find out himself.

  “Did you see anything to suggest the means of its creation?” The horned man continued. “Any signs of another party involved?”

  “I don't know,” I answered simply. “But I'm not sure I'd know what to look for. The cavern they were resting in was natural for the first half. They had torches that looked to be lit by the oil that drips from them. The pit itself and its nearby rooms and halls were of worked stone. The stonework's quality improved the closer I got to the pit. There were many types of dead animals and the fairies were kept alive and in cages. The only equipment I saw the Horde use was this sword I took off the champion,” I held the weapon up for viewing. “And a loincloth he wore, that I didn't have any interest in.” Great Pan chuckled at that. “No other creature was there save the victims. I have no idea whether the monsters can do their own stonework or not, so I don't know if they built the structure or just took it over.”

  The Icons seemed satisfied by my answer, or at least they didn't direct any further questions toward me.

  They asked Stell a few more questions, mostly about things I didn't understand and didn't feel like finding out at that time because my brain was overloaded. But I gathered that they were concerned as to how the Horde Pit had formed in the first place and were all committed to locate anyone with the knowledge to do so and visiting upon them all sorts of unpleasantness. I couldn't find it in me to disagree with them.

  “Thank you for your time, Lady Starsown,” Mother Glade said formally. “Challenger Wes Malcolm, I will say again that you have done us all a great favor. After this meeting, I hope you understand the degree of the threat you have averted. Not only that, but you have both made it more difficult for a new incursion of Horde to form and enabled us to recognize its reappearance faster. I cannot speak for the Icons on other worlds but know that you have each of our favor. May it strengthen you as you seek to perform further heroism. With the Lady of Avalon's permission?”

  The flower-wreathed woman looked to Stell, who gave a stately nod.

  Some of the light surrounding each figure formed separate beams and flowed over to me. My body hummed as they touched me, and I felt a stirring in me similar to what I had felt after destroying the pit.

  Challenger Wes Malcolm, my mind-screen said. You have completed in advance the first part of a Challenge directly issued by the Four Great Icons of the Woadlands, thereby receiving the reward all creatures gain from overcoming the Challenges of Avalon's worlds. A further Challenge has been issued, to find the mortal or creature responsible for bringing the Horde back into existence, and further thwarting said creature. You will be rewarded further as you overcome each Challenge.

  Right, I forgot. In these worlds I get stronger every time I overcome an obstacle.

  Mother Glade now holds you in high esteem.

  The Stag Lord now holds you in high esteem.

  Lady Titania now holds you in high esteem.

  Great Pan's impression of you is unchanged. But he would still drink a beer with you if he could.

  That last one cracked a smile out of me.

  But apparently I had done the equivalent of stopping a forest fire by putting out a spark, and everyone couldn't stop congratulating or rewarding me for it. At least I wasn't getting yelled at anymore. By now I had figured out to avoid mentioning that I touched the Pit, and the Icons didn't ask questions about how I was able to destroy one.

  The mighty lords and ladies soon said their goodbyes and took their leave, leaving me alone with Stell. Guineve's projection over her faded, and she shuddered, looking very tired. I opened my mouth to say something, and then closed it when she turned and hugged me.

  “Thank you,” she said as she put her face into my shoulder.

  “Huh?” I asked eloquently, but returning the hug anyway. “For what?”

  “For proving me right,” the dark-skinned woman replied, not letting go or taking her head out of my shoulder. “This should have been the final problem that overwhelmed me. I shouldn't have even had a Challenger by now, but you showed up out of nowhere, didn't complain, and just took care of this for me. I'm sorry I didn't prepare you for fighting Horde.”

  “Yeah, well, punting them like footballs worked just fine,” I said, trying to make a joke. It sounded a lot better in my head.

  “I don't care,” she mumbled. “You're getting better training. I'm not leaving you under-prepared again.”

  “Great,” I decided to say. Stell let me hold her for almost another whole minute, then gently pulled away to be at arm's length. But she did not let go of my shoulders. I hesitated for a moment, then asked anyway:

  “Stell? That comment earlier about Horde submitting to others, was it true?”

  “Of course,” she said, slightly startled. “It's happened in the past. Why?”

  “How does the Horde know to submit to someone?” I persisted. “Is it just based on strength?”

  “No, like Mother Glade said,” Stell said shaking her head. “We've seen powerful figures cow them, then do something depraved to show they have the same goals. Why are you asking, Wes?”

  “Has the Horde ever been wrong about someone?” I asked, still ignoring her next question. “Has it every submitted to someone who didn't want their power or their desires? Has they ever submitted to a Challenger, Stell? Even once?”

  Stell looked up at me.

  “What?” she asked, clearly confused

  I was shaking now. Maybe I was shaking before and didn't realize it. Maybe I had been shaking the whole time and everyone was just pretending not to notice, trying not to judge the suspected pedophile's son who was being recruited by dark powers with even darker desires, because they saw him as a kindred spirit.

  “I don't think so, Wes,” Stell said calmly. “But if t
hey have, all of the other Challengers rejected them and killed them afterwards. Isn't that what you did?”

  “I told it to let Breena's friends go.”

  The words spilled right out of my mouth. See me, the intent behind them begged. See me and find me to be good.

  “And then what did they do?” She asked slowly. She had a patient look about her face, like she had accepted something about me and had decided to just deal with it. I was scared to find out what.

  “It was just the Wretch at that point,” I said, looking at my memories instead of her. “Breena and I had killed all the Ilklings by then. But the Wretch bowed when he saw me near the fairies. He said he should have been expecting me. And when I said I wanted to free the little pixies he thought I wanted to take them for myself. Thought I wanted a bride-meal, whatever the hell that was.”

  She nodded quietly, her eyes still looking up at me.

  “Doesn't mean what you think it does,” she said, thankfully sensing my disgust at the idea. “It means something far worse. I know you rejected him, though. Tell me what he did then.”

  I didn't answer for a second.

  “Wes?” Stell continued. “I know you're horrified by this, and I know you've got something going on that makes you scared of yourself. It's okay. I'll take it as part of the package. But I know being recruited by that thing was probably a trigger for you, and you're wondering what it saw in you. But a Wretch is stupid, Wes. It probably mistook you for whoever, or whatever brought the Pit into existence out there in the Woadlands. It was probably expecting to meet its creator, which means that we need to look for a human in that area, one that looks like you.”

  “Earth-man,” I mumbled.

  “What?” The beautiful brown woman cocked her head.

  “Earth-man,” I repeated. “It said it was expecting Earth-men. Just not this soon.” Awareness struggled in the back of my head, and I stopped avoiding Stell's eyes. “It was expecting many Earth-men, Stell. And both it and the Pit spoke to me. Offered me power, and devotion. When I rejected them, they called me a traitor-prince.

  “They said their father, whoever that was, would curse me. Make me pay for my treachery.”

  Stell blinked and sucked in a breath. Some of her calmness dissipated.

  “Okay,” She said slowly, after a few moments of silence. “That's supposed to be impossible, but so was the Horde coming back to begin with.”

  She stepped away from me for a moment, thinking.

  “I don't know how people from your world can get here without being Called. You were the first, but Avalon still recognized you as a Challenger, someone who was here to help, immediately. As far as I know, no one from Earth can get to any of the worlds without me at least knowing that they've arrived.”

  She started to pace in front of me.

  “The Horde-being knew of a figure it called Father, which means it had some idea of meeting someone else. Since it said you were the first earthling...” her pace and speech were quickening. “Then 'Father' wasn't from Earth either, which means I shouldn't have to worry about anyone else from Earth crossing on their own. So something else is trying to instigate contact with your world, and the Horde was supposed to play a role in it.”

  “Couldn't 'Father' be that Dark Icon, the huntsman guy?” I asked, curious.

  “Nope!” Stell replied with a smile and a snap of her fingers. “Ilklings and Wretches will venerate the Dark Icons, but they will never credit them with creation because the Icons cannot create Horde themselves. They need to empower a mortal to do so, and the process is complicated and not fully understood by anyone, even those that created Horde Pits in the past. I know because I've interrogated them. So someone else with knowledge of Earth is actually trying to contact Earth. Which is bad, but probably stoppable.”

  “Has that ever happened before?” I asked.

  “No,” Stell shook her head. “We get knowledge of Earth from Challengers, and I can scry the world occasionally, but your planet is regarded as the Silent Planet for a reason. Contact has been long lost. So long that any records of real contact with Earth has also been lost by all but a handful of the wisest scholars on each world .”

  “And would any of them try to contact my world?” I asked. Tired as I was, this still managed to fascinate me.

  “Of course not,” Stell said simply.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because they're not crazy,” She replied. “Sorry,” she added as I raised an eyebrow. “Let me explain. Despite the fact Challengers only come from Earth, and they have always done an incredible amount of good, your people are regarded as one of the most dangerous creatures on every single one of the other worlds, by the handful that know of you. Earthlings are just different.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “Well,” Stell hedged. “Nobody's perfect but... you know how on Earth you will have people who do bad things, and no one can figure out why, including the culprits themselves? Like people who seem to kill for just no reason? Or at least no reason that really make sense?”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly. “We call them serial killers. Because they keep doing it until you find them and stop them. We think.”

  “Right. Well, as far as I know, none of the other worlds have people like that.”

  For a moment I didn't say anything. Stell began talking again.

  “Don't get me wrong,” She said quickly. “People do murder. And steal. And such. But they always have a motive that everyone else can at least understand, even if they don't agree with. But even then things never seem to deteriorate to the degree compared to what I find in Earth. Even when you get away from the supposedly high-crime urban areas of your planet, people still seem to hold grudges longer, make friends outside their close networks more slowly. I can't check often, but every time I've been able to examine your world, I find it to be a place where the population has a stronger desire to cause harm than on any other world. For a final instance, take the Horde.” She paused for a moment, speaking carefully. “Can you honestly say that you've never seen or heard of someone on Earth doing something just as disturbing? If not almost exactly the same thing?”

  Damn, I thought. She had me there

  I shook my head reluctantly.

  “Actually, I've read of even more graphic and disturbing acts being done by people with no discernible motive. And worse stuff being done during our wars.”

  “And how often does it happen?” She persisted. “Once or twice a decade?”

  “In my neighborhood?” I asked.

  “No, on the whole planet.”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted. “Definitely more often than that though. Probably once a day somewhere on the planet.”

  “Pangea is the most violent world under Avalon's influence,” Stell replied. “And even there, I find a graphic torture-murder inflicted by non-monsters maybe once a century. People just aren't that motivated to hurt each other like that. I don't know why your planet's different,” she added uncomfortably. “Maybe because you don't have other threats, like monsters?”

  “I don't know either,” I said. This conversation was getting uncomfortable fast. I didn't like hearing about how my place was 'full of the bad people.' “Why do you call from Challengers from Earth, if we're all so warped?”

  “Wes,” Stell begged, eyes suddenly widening. “I didn't mean you-”

  “Well, why don't you?” I demanded. The back of my brain was saying to stop raising my voice. I ignored it. “Do you have some kind of tool that lets you check and see if someone is secretly very evil? Something more than a giant glowing rock that disagrees with everyone I live with back home? Are you expecting serial killers and sex criminals to leave behind warning signs before they engage in their behavior? Because on Earth they don't, Stell. You just wake up one day and find out someone, maybe even someone you know, started killing people, or has been hiding bodies under his house, or has been doing horrible things to little girls!”

  “Wes...” She tried
to beg again. I didn't let her. I didn't even realize I could stop talking.

  “You just come home one day,” my words spilled out. “Hoping to surprise the man you grew up wanting to be with something you did, hoping to make him proud. You grow up looking up to him, knowing that if you could be like him- heck, if you became just half the man he was, the world had better watch out, because you were gonna to do great things! Great things for everyone! You go straight to his office, hoping to make him proud with your news, but you can't because now he's limp in his chair with a bloody hole in his head! He's dead, Stell! And the only thing he leaves you is a note that says he's done horrible things to little girls! That he's been living a lie his whole life, that he just woke up one day and couldn't take it anymore! And only after his death, Stell! Only after his death do his victims have the courage to come forward and out him! Only after his death! And he lied so well that even after all of that, you just can't bring yourself to believe them! You think maybe the eight and ten and thirteen-year old little girls are the liars! You think maybe the victims are liars, Stell! Right when they need you to believe them the most! Do you know what that means, Stell? That means if he did it, then he hid it so well that he's still fooling you! He's still fooling you even while rotting in the ground with a hole in his head! And since you have the exact same genes- those are the things that make Earthlings do what they do, Stell- then maybe you're just the same! Maybe you'll wake up one morning and find that you've been lying to yourself too, and that you've also done all kinds of horrible things, and you can't face it, so you put a hole in your head, just like your dad did, and you leave your family to deal with the consequences! So how do you tell, Stell? How do you tell if you've got a monster Earth-man with you? Because we can't tell, Stell! We can't! Not even with our own family! Not even with ourselves!”