by Jeremy Dwyer
Tanith Orenda had several of her servants drink of the Zovvin Ocean waters and summon spirits to her service, to haunt the living. Some of the servants could also travel through the spirit world and enter places that were physically off limits, by passing through walls, and becoming material again on the other side. By this method they would infiltrate fortresses and steal wealth.
She encouraged some of her servants to drink of the Pirovalen Ocean waters, to have the power of song. This could give them – with the proper lyrics, melody and tempo – access to most other powers, if only temporarily.
Tanith Orenda accepted that some of her servants had little other talent and should drink of the Trerada Ocean waters, so as to be healthy and beautiful. They could resist illness and thus be put on dangerous missions requiring little skill and almost always recover fully from their injuries. The considerable attractiveness it conferred upon them also meant that they were effective at seducing princes and generals and other high-ranking men of different empires and powerful organizations. Thus, they could secure wealth and knowledge and enslave the male children begotten of the seductions. This proved to be much more effective than Tanith Orenda would have liked – she actually preferred the elegance of the powers of the other waters. However, success was success, and men were lustful creatures no matter how much power they had.
Her servants were loyal because Tanith Orenda always treated them with a mixture of motherly kindness, stern rebuke, sage wisdom and promises of power. She assured them, especially, that they could prosper without depending on men. They were encouraged to find suitable males to carry their own bloodlines, and then murder the men brutally when they became burdensome. The blood of the men was then drunk in ritual sacrifice to the demon known as Matatirot. Over time, so many thousands of men had been murdered in this way by her descendants and her servants and her servants’ descendants that the particular demon noticed.
~~~
Tanith Orenda remembered how, around one hundred (100) millennia ago, in the Matriarch’s Room of the temple, she was quietly contemplating the tiara and how she might find it. At the time, a deep voice spoke and filled her with fright. She was alone, with the door to the room closed and locked. No one else could hear it.
The voice – that of Matatirot – spoke thus: “Much blood has been spilled, of the males in the land. Of their flowing vitality, many women drank, loyal to your command. In my name it was shed, in hope of reward, of tremendous power, beyond mortal sword. This day you shall receive a most fitting return. The might of the seas, you shall lift and churn. For a short time and soon, you shall be queen, and over the whole world you shall reign. It will be a far distant descendant, however, by whom the tiara will be obtained.”
“I accept this reward, though how shall I rule? The many seas have powers I don’t yet understand,” Tanith Orenda asked.
“I shall move the waters that you request. Upon each sea that you travel, name those you detest. Ask for the oceans to strike as you need. I shall hear your calling and perform the deed,” the voice of Matatirot said.
~~~
Tanith Orenda left the room at once, both eager to rule, and filled with questions. She did not know what to expect, yet she expected that it would be substantial when it appeared.
“Prepare two (2) of our finest warships,” Tanith Orenda said to one of her servants. By cunning of various sorts – seductions, murder and even some engineering skills – a fleet of ships had been acquired or built. This was the reason for their need for navigators drinking the Atrejan Ocean waters, so as to hear the star movements and positions and thereby chart courses.
Tanith Orenda then gathered one hundred twenty one (121) of her servant warriors – swordfighters, archers, assassins hiding in the darkness, navigators and telepaths – and boarded the warships. She also brought her own direct descendants.
They ventured out into the Ikkith Tar Ocean and Tanith Orenda called out: “Hear my voice, powerful one, Matatirot. Give me the power of the sea, so that I might be the queen, as was told to me by your very words.”
She heard a voice within her, that no one else around her could hear, and it said: “Reach out your hands and point the way, that the great wave shall rise, and bring death and dismay.”
Tanith Orenda pointed south, toward the continent of Revod, which was the homeland of the rising Jenaldej Empire. They were already quite wealthy, and their men did not so easily succumb to her ploys. Their women were generally far too clever to be deceived, having been schooled in mathematics and sciences as much as the men. Their waterbindings were chosen carefully, based on apparent aptitudes and careful testing. This was an empire that would soon become a threat to the world, as its wealth would grow to be enormous. She wanted it damaged severely, so that it could not judge and destroy her for her ways, as she feared it one day would.
~~~
Matatirot used his powers over the oceans and caused a great wave, over a thousand (1000) feet in height, to rise from the Ikkith Tar Ocean and strike at the northern coast of the continent of Revod. Small towns and settlements were built all along it, including sea ports. In a matter of an hour, over seven million (7000000) people had perished in the attack.
~~~
The voice of Matatirot spoke to Tanith Orenda – once again, so that only she could hear. It said to her: “The death has arrived at the shores of your foe. Their towns and their people I did overthrow. Upon all this death, your eyes shall now gaze. Victory is yours when you cross over the ocean’s haze.”
Matatirot then opened a portal from where her warship was to a point close to the northern shore of Revod. Her warships both passed through the portal, suddenly, and she and her crew then found themselves looking upon the devastation.
The crew marveled at the ruin and Tanith Orenda was pleased. Yet, total destruction was not her plan, so she did not ask for another strike. She couldn’t steal something that was destroyed, and it would be better to limit the power of the Jenaldej Empire, and keep them on the defensive, rather than to eliminate them entirely at the moment.
She ordered her other warship to move in and plunder, and that they did, as the corpses of the Jenaldej citizens could do nothing to defend the ruins of the towns. Much wealth – in the form of diamond and ruby and platinum – was taken on board the ship. Her personal warship remained out at sea a short distance from the coast.
Tanith Orenda went into her private quarters on board her warship, locked the door and spoke, hoping for Matatirot to hear her: “Take me now to the other seas, to strike at other lands, so that I might weaken them, and take spoils from their ruins.”
“As you are the queen of the sea, I shall grant what you ask. Moving your ship shall be my next task,” Matatirot said.
~~~
As Tanith Orenda was a drinker of the waters of the Ursegan Ocean, she frequently requested for the demon to bring her to that ocean where she could drink of its waters anew and continue her longevity. For the next two thousand one hundred (2100) years, she and her servant crew and their descendants traveled the world, pummeling the shores of different continents with both ocean waves and cannons.
Mysteriously, it was during this time period that large stone statues of warriors – some with human faces, and others with gargoyle faces and wings – began to appear all over the world, even in remote places. Tanith Orenda heard reports of these things from her spies, but knew not what they meant. She wondered who might have placed them, and why, and let her spies investigate the matter. She did not let the mysterious statues – called “colossals” by many – distract her from her time of glory, however.
Tanith Orenda ordered many more warships built, and used them to pillage even more treasure on each raid they conducted.
Besides platinum and gem treasure, they captured desirable male breeding stock, so as to continue their reign of terror down through many generations. Tanith Orenda took the finest male specimens and assigned them as mates to her own descendants, so as to carry on he
r own bloodline.
They also took scholars from the lands, and her telepaths read their mind to steal all their knowledge. Her servants who were wise – those who drank the waters of the Medathero Ocean – were given this knowledge and they could understand and organize it and they wrote books of it. They attributed the knowledge to the Ahitan Empire of whom Tanith Orenda was the ruler, and their plan was to bring this to Emeth and establish the Ahitan civilization as a great source of wisdom. However, an unseen hand prevented their entry into the city of Emeth, so they were forced to abandon that objective. Not even the waves of water sent by Matatirot could ever touch that city, as it was protected by a greater power invisible to their eyes.
The males for breeding, and all scholars and other captives, were murdered after being used and their blood was drunk in ritual sacrifice to Matatirot. The females were given quick and merciful deaths; the males were put through horrors in their final moments. This pleased the demon, who continued to grant Tanith Orenda powers over the oceans and portals for transportation.
Whenever needed, they would return to the temple on Av’Tovenka Island and stash their treasure. Under the cover of darkness on the Ikkith Tar Ocean in which the island was located, they were never seen. Not even enemy drinkers of the Lujladia Ocean waters could use their powers of light to find them – one had to be looking in the proper direction at the proper time, after all, and Tanith Orenda kept the world on the defensive with the sudden and deadly strikes she ordered.
Not even the Hidden Paladins, famous for their own stealth, could ever find them, though they tried diligently.
~~~
The mathematical wisdom of the Jenaldej scholars who lived in the central regions of Revod was a powerful force, and led them to search for answers to the plight of the world at the hands of these barbaric women known only as the Ahitan. These scholars also searched for answers to the origins of their world and its structure. They concluded that it was most probable that the world was created by a singular supreme intelligence who had absolute authority. They also concluded that they would need to actively attempt to contact this intelligence and request assistance – which they did – and that assistance came, albeit in a form they did not expect.
The scholars were gathered in a circle – actually, a dodecagon – of twelve (12) persons, joining hands and praying: “To the Supreme Creator, we call out, and we beseech thee, present to us a way to peace.”
A spiritual being – dressed like a warrior carrying a sword of blue flame – then appeared before these scholars, and announced himself: “I am Nalvorel, warrior angel of the One True God, to whom you have called. I am here to vanquish the evil before you, as you have acknowledged the supremacy of the One True God.”
Then, Nalvorel disappeared from their sight and appeared before the sight of the warship of Tanith Orenda. She had just called out to Matatirot, and, although she could not see the demon with her own eyes, Nalvorel could see the demon.
Matatirot could also see Nalvorel, and was filled with dread fear, and rightfully so.
Nalvorel swung his sword twelve (12) times, slashing the demon Matatirot and banishing it from the world for many ages, and weakening him, such that when the demon returned, it would have a lesser power. Human eyes could not see the spiritual battle that occurred, however, unless they peered into the spirit world by the powers of the Zovvin Ocean waters.
Tanith Orenda went into her private quarters on board her ship and called out to Matatirot, but the demon did not answer. She was now filled with dread fear, and ordered her crew to set sail for home. They did this with difficulty, and just barely made it.
All of her other ships, however, were found and destroyed, either by the Hidden Paladins or by ordinary navies, who no longer suffered under the barrage of attacks using the ocean waters.
Tanith Orenda dreaded her own future, fearing that one day she would be discovered. Incredible caution was exercised over the millennia, and she continued her quest for the tiara, deploying her servants and her distant descendants – who were her great granddaughters with many thousands of ‘great’ given all the generations that they were removed from her.
~~~
Danielle was intrigued by these memories, and found the old woman to be frightening and fascinating, admirable and awful, all at once. She was proud to be a part of the Ahitan Empire, and found Tanith Orenda to be a fitting leader.
CHAPTER 4: Prepared with a Fleet across Oceans
The Jendaldej Empire was not consumed with a retrospective view, but was concerned in the present time with the future attack they anticipated. They were busy constructing war ships and deploying them to all thirteen (13) oceans, starting with the five (5) oceans that bordered their home continent of Revod.
One of the resource coordinators – Nathan – was in charge of managing the flow of materials to the ship yards in the eastern regions of the continent. Steel rails were put in place to allow rapid land-based transport of large wheeled carts, which were propelled using sails filled with the same crystals that airships used. They traveled as quickly as an airship – over eight hundred (800) miles per hour – yet could carry much more cargo over the distance. The carts were never chained together, however, and always set apart, each having their own sails and propulsion – this was to mitigate the risk of a mass derailment, so that one cart that slipped from its rails did not drag the others with it.
Some resource coordinators – including those in the central and western regions of Revod – considered this to be wasteful of sails and propulsion crystals. They believed that it was better to minimize the number of sails, and considered the derailment risk to be small. Nathan, however, feared the loss of shipbuilding materials more, in the face of the impending battles. They had different estimates of the probability of a failure, which led to a different decision on how to distribute resources.
Admiral Gavin was responsible for the construction of ships in the northeastern shipyards along the edge of the Ikkith Tar Ocean. With a team of two hundred twenty (220) construction workers – mostly drinkers of the waters of the Nabavodel Ocean which gave them strength and speed – they could build a ship every eight (8) days. They had over one thousand (1000) such teams working simultaneously, thus producing as many ships every eight (8) days for ninety-six (96) days of work, thus producing twelve thousand (12000) ships in that ocean alone.
Each ship was five hundred twelve (512) feet in length, with three (3) pairs of ninety (90) foot high pivot-enabled masts that could switch between upright sailing mode and sideways airship mode. The ships would hold four hundred (400) sailors and crew, for a total of four million eight hundred thousand (4800000) personnel. The crew would consist of three (3) drinkers of the Atrejan Ocean waters for sensing sun positions for navigation; twelve (12) drinkers of the Lujladia Ocean waters for light scouting to see through dark and around corners and over long distances; eight (8) drinkers of the Ikkith Tar Ocean waters for dark scouting to see through false lights and illusions; four (4) drinkers of the Zovvin Ocean waters for spirit sensing in case of the use of ghosts; eight (8) drinkers of the Elanatin Ocean waters for telepathic sensing of enemy positions; forty-five (45) drinkers of the Kazofen Ocean waters for bending new crystals for the sails and purifying waters; three hundred twenty (320) trained warriors, including both Nabavodel drinking sword fighters and Lujladia drinking archers. Nathan and Admiral Gavin had, together, decided on these numbers based on military need and population distribution.
There were adequate numbers of competent volunteers of the proper waterbindings, as the warning of the danger had been thoroughly promulgated throughout the Jenaldej Empire.
Other admirals and resource coordinators were responsible for the construction and staffing of the battle fleets in the Medathero Ocean in the southeast, the Kazofen Ocean in the south, the Zovvin Ocean in the southwest and the Lujladia Ocean in the northwest. Those were the only five (5) oceans that bordered the continent of Revod.
However, ship c
onstruction wasn’t the only concern.
~~~
In the large castle – with its unusual tapered towers – that was the military academy in the northeastern region, Imperial Prince Emerond and General Joshua were preparing their own battle plans and the trusted scholar, Romana, was with them. The Chronicler, Ovid, was also present, under the authority of the Oath, which allowed him to witness these things.
Emerond’s command office in the castle was a large room, which was a square one hundred twenty (120) feet on a side with thirty (30) foot high ceilings. There were maps of all oceans and continents and land bridges on the walls and in the forms of large globes. There were many vials of each of the twelve (12) waters on shelves that made the room appear to be as much an alchemy lab as a war room.
“At the first opportunity, we need to strike her with the Spirit Sword. We must be able to track Victoria’s movements quickly, and be ready to meet her, wherever she appears afterwards,” Romana said.
“How do you know, for sure, that it will actually work as described?” Joshua asked.
“Are you asking us to trust the word of a ghost of a long-dead duke?” Emerond asked.
“Duke Hagan told us the truth about Lavakara. If anybody misled us about the Spirit Sword, it was Lady Ismene, and I’m not even sure that she did. And it did repel the sunfire creature,” Romana said.
“The sunfire creature is not flesh and blood – it’s composed of a different sort of energy, which is why the Spirit Sword worked against it,” Emerond said.
“Victoria is flesh and blood, as far as we know. Every opportunity to strike her should be taken – with maximum damaging force applied, with a weapon that we know will work against flesh and blood,” Joshua said.
“I agree. The sooner she is ended, the fewer deaths and the less destruction she can cause,” Emerond said.
“She will not allow herself to be easily seen or followed. If this tiara is anything like what we’ve been led to believe, it’s going to allow her to control the oceans and create storms. We may not be able to see where we’re going soon enough in the midst of large waves and high winds,” Romana said.