“I followed my father’s plan to the letter, Lord Order,” Lunas said to the ground. “A visiting prince attacking the hosting queen would not have been lawful. I would certainly have lost. There was nothing I could do.”
The image shifted to Kasile denouncing Latrot’s use of ordercraft to mind control its subjects alongside Abbot Tolis. It also showed her promoting Medical Mana Mutation in the days following Eric’s release from the ICDMM’s containment wing.
“I do not know how Eric got to her, my lord. I made sure to keep him out. I turned her against him even in her mind, I posted her guards to expel him, and I instructed my agents to persuade the ICDMM gatekeepers to keep him contained.”
The image shifted to Annala Enaz shaming Lunas at the Mana Mutation Summit by pointing out the undesirable aspects of the Obelisk Mutation Control plan. Following this was her using the plan to make her own proposal more appealing; a proposal that they had earlier rejected but now were considering. It ended with them agreeing to reconvene in Dnnac Ledo.
“I...I thought she was powerless, my lord. Without chaotic energy or chaotic faith, I did not consider her a threat.”
You know so much about ordercraft and yet you understand nothing. Humans are contradictory, and elves more so. Without the Subjugation Collar, she would have returned to her non-threatening life as an apostate schoolgirl. You inspired her to be more.
“I will order my son to practice ordercraft more often instead of simply studying theory. He does not wish to saturate himself before he has become your vessel.”
It is too late for that. Send him to Siduban.
“I can’t go there!” Lunas’ hands and knees shook violently and he swung his head from side to side. “No, I can’t! I refuse to AAAAAAHHHH!” He clutched his head and curled up.
“My lord and god, I will send my son there if that is your command, but he will surely die. There is no place more dangerous in this world, nor one more chaotic.”
My power will protect him. Furthermore, you have taken a precaution yourself.
Epideus glanced at his son, who was rolling about in psychic torture. His face was stern yet compassionate. The bunny puppet on his right hand mimed laughing.
“Yes, my lord, you are right on both accounts.”
Three days in Siduban to redeem himself. When he survives, he will demonstrate the fruits of his experience. Only then will I allow his apotheosis.
“You are most gracious, my lord.”
A cloud of silver-grey gas emerged from the Grand Obelisk. It condensed into the size of a human being and descended to the ground. There, Lunas was still curled up. The enforcer swathed him and spun ethereal chains. They lashed into his mind, his body, and his soul, and each one increased Lunas’ misery. Once it was firmly anchored, the enforcer fully submerged itself within Lunas.
I must have a better vessel than Nulso Xialin and your son cannot provide me with this vessel as he is now. Will the apotheosis ritual be ready when he returns?
“Yes, my lord,” Epideus said. The king was still addressing the ground as he spoke. “My son’s personal assistant is separating Fiol’s attribute from the divinity catalyst that he obtained during the summit. Your priests and scientists are preparing the altar for the ceremony. Please forgive us for the delay. Such a vessel must be perfect and so every precaution and improvement must be made before we can formally begin.”
In the meantime, you are to eliminate the chaos knights by any means necessary.
“Your word is my command, Lord Order. Unfortunately, my armies have been depleted and my wife has been murdered in pursuit of your goal to stop the progression of Medical Mana Mutation. Any remains are occupied shoring up the breach in reality that Annala Enaz created. Thus, I have fewer resources at my disposal to carry out your word. I can neither assassinate the Chaos Knights nor stage a raiding campaign in Mithra.”
Are you asserting that this is my fault?
“Yes, my lord, I am.”
Then you speak the truth. Fill the gaps as soon as possible and with whatever means necessary. I must have my perfect vessel, and my progenitor must not have hers if I am to fully subjugate this world.
“I have arranged for a troll to become a reaper who has used his Final Wish to kill Eric Watley. The Abyss Lords will not interfere and not even Tasio can see death coming. Eric will be dead and you will be unopposed.”
You are dismissed.
Order’s presence vanished from the room, and Epideus had no doubt that his eye had departed as well. Order existed outside of Noitearc and thus was not bound by the laws of physics as humans understood them. He was vast in spirit and cared not for time nor space, but even he had limits. Unlike his mother and sibling, he was a finite being and thus could not be everywhere at once. This included enforcers like the one within Lunas. As long as nothing threatened the boy with lethal harm, it would remain dormant. Thus it was with confidence that Epideus laughed at the Grand Obelisk.
“A sore loser has left our royal presence, my son. Imagine! Blaming us for his failure.”
Breathing deeply, Lunas moved to his hands and knees. Then he stood up and pulled back his hood. His face was pale as a ghost. He swallowed and said, “Indeed, Father. If he wished to combat elves and tricksters, he should have consulted us first.” He knew better than to ask about Siduban. Within the hour, he would be on his way and there was nothing either of them could do about it. “You commissioned Nulso models specifically for channeling his power.”
“Yet he dismisses our efforts, makes a secret deal with an unknown person, and runs off. Nulso Xialin was never meant to see heavy combat. His purpose was solely propaganda.”
Epideus stomped out of the Sanctuary of Order and his son followed behind him.
“Hail, fellow chaos devotee!”
“Who said that?!” Epideus demanded.
From behind an obelisk pillar, a human man stepped out into full view. He wore the golden-brown robe and hood of the Church of Chaos. A rainbow belt held it tight at his waist and a charm necklace of all the status elements hung from his neck. His white hair was shaved in a tonsure style. In one hand, he held a staff with the Flower of Chaos at one end and the infinity symbol at the other, and both were spiked with daggers at their end. Waving his staff in a grand flourish, he bowed respectfully to the royals.
“Greetings and good health, O King of Latrot.” He lifted his head and sneered. “Or should I say ‘viceroy’? Maybe ‘governor’ is correct. ‘Steward,’ maybe? Forgive me, I’m trying to find the most accurate term of address.”
Epideus glared at the strange priest. “I am king.”
“Really? I know Order values accuracy as sacred and so I’m trying to be respectful of that. Surely you can’t be king if you accept orders from someone higher in your government.”
“Who are you?!” Epideus bellowed. “Identify yourself or I shall pull the information from your mind before I break it.”
The priest twirled his staff in the pattern of the symbol of infinity before smacking the butt on the ground and the head in the sky.
“I am Father Omnias Cyfanswm Insgesamt from the Sacred Order of Primordial Root. I venerate Lady Chaos as the Source of All Power and Sum of All Existence.”
“A chaos priest?! In my castle?!” Epideus reached out into thin air and his hand shined with Order’s non-light. “Emergency dispatch! All Nulso to the courtyard!”
One hundred portals opened around Omnias and the Latrot royals. One hundred ordercrafters jumped out of them and took positions around the three of them. Fifty surrounded the royals in a protective ring and fifty surrounded the intruder in a death circle. All of them were duplicates of Nulso Xialin. The only difference was that these Nulso did not wear their hair in a noose.
Omnias put a hand to chin and “hmmed.” The shrug of his shoulders and his sigh were as far removed from despair as Lunas’ posture was from humility.
“Yes, the Nullifying Universal Lawful Solutions Operative...You should discontinue t
his model. It’s useless.”
“Foolish priest. Your freedom ends here!” Epideus declared. “Nulso: Subdue him!”
The Nulso didn’t react.
“Your king commands you! Subdue him now!”
“But, Your Majesty, he is Order.”
“He is clearly human!”
“He is radiating orderly power that cannot be traced outside of him,” the Nulso said. “What else could he be but the source of orderly power?”
Omnias grinned and struck one of them in the head with his staff.
“Receive the power of Order!”
The Nulso allowed the priest’s power through his spiritual shields, at which point, he blew up. A faint chaotic tinge stained the air where he used to be. None of the other ninety-nine sensed chaotic power entering their fallen copy; it just suddenly appeared out of the orderly power sent into it. Their eyes crossed trying to figure this out.
While they puzzled, Omnias struck the four nearest him in their turn, and each of them exploded. Just like with the first, chaotic traces remained in the air. Lunas and Epideus watched closely, but they couldn’t discern how this could be true.
“With all due respect, great king, this is why you should discontinue the N.U.L.S.O. model. It has a critical flaw in its design.”
“It’s vulnerable to chaos?” Lunas asked.
Omnias shook his head. “It’s stupid. In the course of my training and throughout my personal reflections, I have refined my spirit to better emulate that which I revere and, in doing so, I pursued all forms of power. To advance my understanding of change, I must understand control. Thus, I developed my own ordercraft.”
“Impossible!” Lunas declared. “No one can possess ordercraft except by receiving it as a blessing from Order himself.”
Omnias waggled his index finger. “With Chaos, all things are possible, for Chaos is the source of all power. It only requires strength of spirit, flexibility of mind, and passion of heart. Nulsos only have the former and this makes them vulnerable to deception like my ordercraft.”
“Deceptive ordercraft is an oxymoron.”
Omnias chuckled. He walked straight up to Lunas and ruffled his hair, as if the teenage prince was some amusing little scamp. Lunas snarled and shouted orders at the ninety-five remaining Nulso around them. They didn’t move a muscle because they still insisted that the chaos priest was Order himself. In royal anger, the prince threw an order tendril into Omnias’ mind. This made the older man’s chuckles grow into laughter. As Lunas discovered, trying to grab his mind or soul with ordercraft was like trying to lasso a cloud.
“You have a cute son, Your Majesty.”
The prince gave up on astral limbs and instead smacked the hand away with his own physical one. This delighted Omnias so much, he clapped his hands together. The staff stood upright on its own, where he physically released it.
“That’s it! That’s better! You may be skilled with ordercraft practical influence, but you don’t understand its philosophy.”
With a sweep of his staff, Omnias spun about and pointed at the Grand Obelisk.
“Order is the Great Stabilizer. It is he who takes the flowing energies of Noitearc and makes sense of them. It is not that he only speaks facts, but that what he speaks is fact. Don’t you see? Ordercrafters never ‘lie.’ What they do is determine the nature of ‘the truth.’”
He lowered his staff to point it in Lunas’ face and then at Epideus.
“All you two have is surface influence. You have to dig a little deeper, like that Enaz girl, if you want to be someone who interprets reality for others instead of shouting them down.”
“Annala Enaz.” The name came out of Lunas’ mouth soaked in contempt. Due to Order’s honesty, he couldn’t say he hated anyone, only disliked, indifferent to, dismissive of, etc. In all the world, the only person that the God of Truth allowed him to claim that he hated was her. “That insufferably insolent nerd who clings to Eric Watley’s arm.”
“Anger,” Omnias said. “Frustration. Arrogance. As the prince of Order’s Latrot, I figured you would be more stoic.” He poked Lunas in the chest, right over his heart. “How do you expect to properly channel power from the Patient God if you carry so much chaotic emotion?”
Every Nulso present nodded in agreement. Lunas couldn’t decide what angered him more; that so many were opposed to him or that his own father was one of them.
“You see, my son? Even this chaos priest understands ordercraft theory better than you do.” Epideus made a little bow of his head toward Omnias and continued, “Wise cleric, would you do me the honor of tutoring my son? He would surely benefit from the instruction of one such as yourself and I would much rather free slaves to you than Nunnal Enaz.”
Omnias bowed his head lower than the king and replied, “It is you who honor me, Your Majesty, with the invitation. I will happily teach your son ordercraft theory when my pilgrimage is complete. In fact, that is why I am here.”
“A chaos priest making a pilgrimage to a holy site of Order?”
“I do not consider myself a ‘chaos priest’ in the same sense that you do.” He pointed to the end of his staff that bore the Flower of Chaos. “You say ‘chaos priest’ and you think ‘cleric of one of the many branches of the Church of Chaos’ and while that is technically correct, my order goes beyond chaos itself.” He flipped the staff around and pointed at the infinity symbol on the opposite end. “It embraces all of the many forms of chaos, of which chaotic energy and philosophy is only a single part.”
He pointed at the Eye of Order decorating the walls of the Sanctuary of Order and the Hands of Order inscribed above them.
“Orderly spirit control and philosophy is another part; equally valuable, equally necessary, and equally venerated. Thus, I have come to worship Order at his holiest of holies.”
“How can I refuse one who wishes to do homage to my lord god? But first answer me this: how did you get in here? This is supposed to be the most secure place in Latrot.”
“The answer is simple.” Omnias smirked. “I walked in like I owned the place. The guards waved me right in.”
“That’s impossible!” father and son exclaimed.
Omnias waggled both index fingers. “Incorrect again. With chaos, all things are possible. With order, one determines what these things are. Together with my own understanding and merit, it was simple to convince your guards that I had every right to come here, and I do. After all, am I not the prince’s personal tutor?”
“But I did not make you that offer until after you came in.”
“Past and future are irrelevant.” Omnias chortled. “In all seriousness, what I have is imitation ordercraft that resembles the real thing. I came here in hope of crossing this divide so that I may advance my understanding and prove a point to an unruly student.”
At once, the priest fell down into a kowtow. This baffled the royals. They were used to it from their subjects, but he was not only an intruder but a chaos priest. They no longer had any idea what was going on.
“Your Majesty, may I please have your permission to enter the Sanctuary of Order?”
“You may.”
Omnias raised his head. “Thank you, Your Majesty. That is most gracious of you.”
He grabbed his staff, stood up, and strode past the royals into the Sanctuary of Order. The N.U.L.S.O. created an honor guard for him of their own accord. He nodded to each of them and disappeared inside. The doors closed behind him of their own accord as well.
Lunas shook his head. “Father, how could you make such a man my tutor?”
“Because I am desperate. No one else has successfully taught you, and I am too busy running the country to give you my full attention. If Order does not find you worthy of succeeding me, then you will be demoted from ‘heir’ to ‘guard.’” He gestured at the N.U.L.S.O. holding a defensive formation around them. “One more mindless drone to throw at the forces of chaos. I don’t want that to happen to my sole remaining child.”
“I may not have Nulso Xialin’s strength, but my skill is far superior, and my sanity far more stable,” Lunas argued. “He was a blunt instrument where I am a finely honed and multi-purpose device. I do not need this strange cleric’s teachings.”
Epideus placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You fear Order. You fear losing control over yourself and your future to him. You do not understand, no, you do not accept the contradiction of Ordercraft; to gain control over others at the cost of control over yourself.”
“Contradictions are chaotic,” Lunas said, and with the pompous self-righteousness that only a teenage prince could possess, he stated, “I have a better grasp of ordercraft than either you or Nulso Xialin. Don’t you know the saying? The best ordercrafters don’t need ordercraft.”
The doors to the sanctuary burst open and Omnias pranced forth, swinging his staff above his head with great enthusiasm.
“Oh, what a marvelous experience! I feel enlightened. Oh, happy day!” Again he prostrated himself. “Oh, earthly king of Latrot, I beg of you, what can I do to repay you?”
“In addition to teaching,” Epideus said, “I want you to become my son’s matchmaker.”
“Father?!”
Concern broke out on Lunas’ face, but Epideus acted as though he did not notice. He continued addressing Omnias without pause.
“I require the aid of someone with your talent to find a girl suitable for joining with my son, and if necessary, to mold one.”
“Father! I thought this was settled. I will marry Ariel.”
“That girl is dangerous. You will marry a girl who doesn’t want to kill you in your sleep.”
“She hasn’t killed me in my sleep. She’s had years to try.”
“I sent your stepmother to her death because I discovered a plot to kill me three years in the making. Women are patient, vile, and wretched creatures. They will wait until you are at your weakest before they strike. I would have executed Ariel long ago if we didn’t need her.”
“I believe I understand what you desire, Your Majesty.” Omnias picked at his eyebrows as he pondered. “It is possible but how? Hmmmm...”
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