Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 123 (10/27/01 1:27:25 am) Reply Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the middle of nothing, the Dreamer floated. His green robes were even more torn and bloody than normal, his eyes black globes tinted with red, his skin showing one new long scar, still slowly healing. He looked torn and dishevelled. And he stared forward with a look of mixed despair, hate, calculation and hope, right hand holding something so hard the knuckles were white. Just darkness before him. All the planes were behind him. This was it, the End of the Paths, the Borderlands. He had run from the center of known multiversum through his own lands to the stranger paths, then past them, to places he had visited only once or twice or never ... and now he was here. He knew about the frontier, everybody did. But to actually be here, that was different. He took one step forward. The shape of the place he was looking for unfolded in the Void before him, black on black, invisible. Just an innocent looking stretch of nothing to most. He had the key, though; he had been invited, a long time ago. Aeons ago, almost. Time was of little consequence to those waiting behind that barrier of warped-up Void, but still, he hoped that they did remember the pact they had offered. The planewalker opened his right hand and stared at the heavy key: 5" tall and 2" wide, it was made of ordinary iron, but it held a core of Void-matter, twisted to the exactly same shape than the Void in front of him was. The piece of metal felt heavy on his hand. He had never believed it would come to this. With a quick glance backwards and a sigh, the Dreamer stepped through the unseen wall.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Valdar and Astralis Initiate Posts: 9 (10/27/01 3:00:06 am) Reply Re: Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Valdar felt a familiar presence as he sped down yet another forgotten path. He had not come this way before, and was cloaked in a vast aura of energy, which streamed out behind him to form a huge multi-hued cone in the mana stream behind him. What is HE doing here? He wondered, slowing his rapid pace. Altering his course, the one who was once an elf set a new course to intercept his old teacher. Then the presence was gone. Valdar stopped in shock. What happened? he said aloud to himself. Slowly, his eyes changed from blue to black as he squinted into the borderlands. He cannot be dead; I would have felt it otherwise. And besides, the death of a walker of planes would cause a major disruption of the void around him. There is nothing . . . his thread just ended. Carefully tracing the mana stream, Valdar approached the last know position of the Dreamer warily, probing, then retreating again. Nothing. He passed the last plane, and saw the great nothingness, beyond which nothing lay. He reached out, unknowingly at the exact spot where the dreamer had vanished. Nothing. A disturbance made him turn, to face a small army of archangels and demons-all wearing the Sigil of the lady pain. His eyes flared involuntarily, through the strip of cloth he had taken to wearing about his head. Valdar was preparing to make a run for it before he recognized the lead Cherubim. “You”-he snarled. Without thinking, he drew his great sword, nameless as of yet-and flew straight into the startled host. Edited by: Valdar and Astralis at: 10/27/01 3:24:24 am
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 138 (11/7/01 11:21:09 am) Reply Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From the darkness to the light. Some remote part of the Dreamer's brain was amused at that, went through thinking all the possible angles, saw how right and how wrong those words were in the context. Most of his brain had other things to do with its time, however. Behind him was the wall to the Void, showing a surface as dark and mundane as it had done from the outside. It looked like a perfect window - you couldn't see it, but it was there, a barrier between him and the empty, free Void, a block between him and his Paths. Before him... ... the Chaos Fortress. A pulsating wooden sphere, telling the tale of the multiversum with its engraved surface, rotating .. a massive angel wings furled looking sad, rotating .. a metal caste made out of swords, rotating .. a tall stone egg, rotating ... rotating, it changed, not transmuting but just being different from one moment to another, changing so profoundly it had never been anything else, but also shining with a clear aura of potential, clearly visible to the planewalker. Only the change and the rotation were constants, and staring at the thing even the Dreamer felt a twist in his stomach. And not just because of the dizzying effect of the rotating pulsating twisting radiating change... People think that I am powerful .. and I guess they are right, from their point of view. But there are always bigger hammers. He felt the locals strip his impregnable armor of layer upon layer of protective and retaliatory spells, easily and quickly, and he felt like a giant in the hand of a titan, great but powerless against these forces. He had known it would be like this, but that didn't make it any easier. Emperors do not kneel. After they had finished with the enchantments, leisuredly and without showing their faces, they did the last, finishing touch: the Dreamer felt his flows of mana first slow down and then almost vanish, just leaving him a trickle to keep him alive and floating in the dark nothing. He felt naked and humiliated and alone - all the distant voices of the trapped angels and demons had stopped, he didn't feel his far-away fortresses any more, he was blind to the future and the present. Just the core remained, the sense of being, his stripped, powerless mind. And then the Chaos decided to appear to him.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 147 (11/13/01 4:28:05 pm) Reply Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothingness changed into a being. Normally, the Dreamer would've probed the thing on many levels, would've read its aura, gauged the amount of mana it drained from the background, estimated how big a threat it was and planned ways to either beat it or flee it. Now he was helpless, and the only thing he could do was watch as a swirl appeared in the void before him, and the potential that permeated this place turned into certainity - with a quick flash of light, it took the form of a female half-angel, half-demon, the features of both mixing cleverly with each other in the tall and impressive body of the Herald of Chaos. She had leathery wings with beautiful white feathers here and there, big, eerie, blue eyes with fiery red sparks inside them, dark horns protruding from between white hair and a shiny coppery skin that glistened in the glow of the Fortress. She streched her newly created body and then, slowly, she turned to stare directly at the Dreamer. " So you came, planewalker? I see you have already taken several steps to our direction in the centuries that have passed since our last talk. So, speak, little one, and I will listen." Her voice was fire and ice, hate and cold scorn, but her face held a degree of intrest that promised ... something. "Ah, you know very well why I am here, Chaos. I wouldn't come here, not after what happened, unless I ... needed a favor." The Herald of Chaos started to laugh. " In trouble, waiting for us to release you from the trap? You are a fool if you think we touch Lady of Pain or even her troops. And we do not owe you anything, never did." She crossed her arms across her breasts and waited for a good reply or for a reason to send the Dreamer away, to the claws of the army that waited just on the other side of the barrier. The power of chaos flared around her as a magnificent aura, seen even with bare eyes, and for first time as the Dreamer the planewalker felt fear...
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 148 (11/14/01 11:55:38 am) Reply Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Breathing deeply, not because he needed to but because it was a gesture his body wanted to do, the planewalker reached under his robes and pulled out the black, iridescent amulet which Kali had put there. It was inert, as it had been all this time, just a mark of the death goddess, nothing more, nothing less. "I want you to remove this, Chaos. Shouldn't be too much for a great power like you. I would've taken it off myself, but it was etched into my being when I was weak, and it has deep roots..." The tall fiendish woman in front of him smiled, showing her sharp, long canines, light dancing on her blood-red teeth. " Mark of Kali ... I can almost taste the irony of that, immortal boy". She licked her lips with her forked black tongue. " Yes, we could remove that, godslayer, if you agree to do what we asked you to do the last time." The Dreamer's face showed first suprise and then contemplation. He could feel the outter tendrils of the Herald's aura touching him, cajoling him with more power, but he tried to ignore it as he thought the offer through. So they haven't gotten anybody else to do it yet ... it is right at the edge of my powers, but I have progressed since they last asked, so I guess I could do it. Still, to stray from the middle path ... Some part of him realized that he had strayed countless years ago, when he utilized chaos to help him against the dream god and when his eyes had changed, and the truth spread from that point, filling his entire mind. "I will do it, Chaos. As soon as I can get rid of my followers." Herald of Chaos smiled again, a fraction of hostility melting away from her fiendish face. She gestured lazily and the mana flows reattached themselves to him, bringing with them a slight taint of chaos, which made him shudder. This is it ... no more talking with the Law, I am a marked one. One mark goes, another comes. Then the Herald's hand flashed forward, her wings propelling her, and she snatched the amulet from the Dreamer's throat with one powerful pull. There was a silent snapping sound as it came loose, but the planewalker couldn't hear it - he was convulsing as the deep roots of the Mark of Kali left him, tearing at him as they were torn out. World dimmed for an indetermined moment. When he came back to his senses, he was staring at the face of the Herald of Chaos from close range. " Oh, did that hurt?" She grinned, showing enough teeth to rip the planewalker's head off. The Dreamer just shuddered and floated away a feet or two, trying to regain his senses and powers fully, curling up in the middle of the Void. The last thing he heard as he started a regenerative trance were the mocking words of the Herald of Chaos: " Heal up, scarred boy, they'll be waiting for you outside..."
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 150 (11/14/01 5:15:09 pm) Reply Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Dreamer opened his eyes, shaking his head and unwinding his body from its curled up form, coming out of the healing trance groggy and confused. He looked around and saw the fortress of Chaos, now again properly with both magic and more mortal senses, and he felt his power expand beyond the scope of this miniature pocket dimensions, touched his far-away servants and hideouts with outstreched fingers of power. The angelic she-devil was not in sight, but now he could feel her presence permeating the place - she was everywhere instead of nowhere. The planewalker turned to stare at the barrier between him and the friendly, free Void. Freedom beckoned, freedom and the Lost Paths, his own roads in the places between places. Patience was an easy virtue for a being of hundreds and hundreds of years, though, so he held himself in check and took time to reweave all his usual enchantments. Protection could be essential, if there were still some angels or demons out there waiting for him to come out... he would wait, if he would've come this far to find his prey. Something didn't feel quite right, but analyzing just what it was wasn't easy. He had changed again with this new acceptance of Chaos, and he felt new and raw, both clumsier and more powerful than before. Part of the power coursing through him was now pure chaos, and if he would learn to utilize it to its fullest extent, he'd have a definite edge againts opponents who were his match before. Watch out, Sarnael ... I doubt you could win against me now. With all his protection in place, ready for quick run to his nearest fortress past any who might wait in guard and already thinking of how to accomplish the task Chaos had set for him, the Dreamer stepped through the barrier to the Void.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 152 (11/16/01 3:10:42 pm) Reply Re: Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step. Flash of powerful auras, a series of jarring hits which disintegrated his defences, pain and blindness, confusion, agony as spears of force penetrated him. He had walked straight to an ambush. Shaking off the dizziness brought by pain the second time in very short time he focused his senses to the beings that had so crushed his protective enchantments. He had been sure that he could run past any angels or demons that would be waiting, that he could evade or fight them with his augmented powers. These were greater forces, of that he was sure even before he saw them, one right before him and one on his left, one on his right side. Before him stood Aetaus, god of time: an ancient man holding a hourglass and a hermit's staff, eyes two bright stars looking at both past and future, visiting the present only briefly; he was wearing flowing old dirty robes that used to be white, the ethereal edges of the cloth fading to the Void. He stared straight at the Dreamer, far away but tall enough to look majestetic even from distance. He could almost feel the hatred eminating from him, and he remembered all those times he had acted against the agents of Aetaus, killing, hindering, or even binding them to be his own servants. On the planewalker's left side was Eaversium, god of destruction. The heavy-set warrior, armed with a massive maul and wearing a mishmash of armor, face so full of cuts that seeing it from beneath all the black gushing blood is impossible, just floated in the Void, rising and lowering his hammer like he was beating something invisible with it. He couldn't see the look on his face, but it was a common knowledge that he was on a crusade against the gods, and this god rarely needed any excuse. And on the Dreamer's right side ... cold wind seemed to pass through him as he beheld the many-armed figure of Kali, a goddess of Death, dancing but standing still, reaching towards him with her deadly touch. A ghastly pain surged through him, duplicating the experience he had when the Herald of Chaos ripped the Mark of Kali from his throat, coursing through the same paths the roots of the amulet had ripped away by. The planewalker swayed and his vision dimmed, but he stood his ground. Waiting for the Dreamer to regain his composure fully, Aetaus glanced at his hourglass, then again fixed his stare at the planewalker. Through empty Void his voice boomed: "WE HAVE FOLLOWED YOU HERE TO JUDGE YOU, PLANEWALKER" The Dreamer tried to speak, to spit one last time to the faces of the gods with his words, but they had silenced him with their shackles, and he could just hang there, raging without a voice, watching them to gloat over his suspended body. "YOU HAVE ACTED AGAINST US FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, BEEN A CONSTANT ANNOYANCE FOR US. WE TOLERATED THAT. RESISTANCE SHOWS OUR MIGHT, MAKES PEOPLE WORSHIP US. YOU WERE ON OUR SIDE, REBEL. BUT THEN YOU KILLED ONE OF US." The god's eyes focused fully on him, let the future and the past go. "EYE FOR AN EYE, PLANEWALKER!" The gods combined their forces and hurled him backwards in time, towards his destruction.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Zadown Bard Posts: 155 (11/21/01 12:01:39 pm) Reply Dreamer Interlude II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He could feel the time flowing past him, years and years appearing and fading away, and he was adrift in the backward stream of it, propelled by the power of Aetaus with the aid of Eaversium and Kali. He could feel his own birth getting closer, and he knew it would be his death, too - the begining and the end, all tied up, the snake eating his own tail and ending up vanishing utterly like it never was. But he could feel his new powers of chaos, too, and he would not go down without a fight, never. He streched away long fingers of magic, trying to grab hold of something in the stream, trying to slow his descent to the past even a fraction, but this river of time was unknow territory for him, and it was all strange colors, tastes, feels. The Dreamer's spells failed him, all the protective enchantments fading as they passed the mark when they were first woven. The thin links he held to his bound servants severed themselves, dissolving in the raging stream of time and he lost contact to his fortresses as he was hurled backwards. The planewalker was disintegrating, all his outter layers of magic and contacts being stripped away from him again, just like Chaos had done to him. The Dreamer hadn't really known before what falling felt like. And he surrendered to falling and to chaos like he had done in his battle against the dream god, just let his consincous mind go and entered battle trance, shedding away anything that wasn't needed right now. That was the key, had always been. His thin fingers of magic straightened, formed the skeletons of wings, and between those unreal masts he unfurled sails of chaos, bracing against the fall. Time slipped past him, bringing him closer and closer to his doom, a huge boulder of sandstone from the hourglass of time at a time ... a huge boulder, a smaller one, then just a rock, a shallow stream of sand... ... and then the clock which had rotated wildly backwards finally stopped. He had survived the fall.
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