Continuing in the Present...

Rorn was there, waiting out in the darkness. He fell in beside me as I headed back into the Camp.

“I wondered why there were never Berserkers in the Ironblood,” he mused to me.

“Chaotic Good Berserkers are awesome heroes. The rest can go jump off a cliff,” I snorted. “Just more assholes who want to Rage away and not take responsibility for their choices in life. Use or be used, bow to strength and nothing else.” I gave him an elbow. “Good job, showing them up.”

“I’ve been waiting to do so my whole life,” he growled. “All the High Kings of our people have been Berserkers, but they never last. Too many grudges, too many emotions. They can’t build a nation, and even their own clans fracture with infighting, since the whoresons usually have dozens of offspring who all want the throne. I aim to give my people a Warlord and a King who doesn’t rely on Rage for strength.”

“Showing them a new way. Powered Monarchs always have problems, in the end,” I sniffed. “Hard to be a Monarch of people who aren’t like you.”

“The Path of Kings is never easy.” He certainly wasn’t thinking so. “It is strange...”

“What is? Everything?” I laughed. “You’d be growing up if you thought so...”

“It’s just... I don’t think of you like a queen, but you hold so much power...”

“That’s because I’m a Null, and you’re a Source. In your eyes, I’m someone who helps you become a King, not a ruler myself. Nulls make things happen, but they don’t sit well on a real throne.” I waved at the guards as we walked into the Camp, they just nodded back at us. “You’re not the only Source among the Ironblood, you know. They are all looking to become kings and queens of their own kind now, you know?”

“And are using you to do it.” He hmphed, but he had his answer. “And you don’t really care...”

“As long as shit gets done that needs to get done, no. Gotta have leaders, gotta have followers, gotta have guides showing the way... and gotta have crazy people with magic powers doing weird shit to keep things interesting.”

He actually smiled slightly at the thought. “The gods do seem to enjoy spectacle.”

“It’s just a pain in the ass to live through. Then you live through it and are like, ‘wow, what a show that was! Wonder what they’ll think up next. Ah, shit, forget I said anything... crap!’”

“I think we learned in Nightmare that there was always more shit that could be dropped on us, right?” His eyes flickered with memories of dying, over and over again, to stuff that was so damn strong...

“These chowderheads are giving so many people a chance to get so strong, and they don’t even realize it.” I lifted my hands in casual acknowledgement to people walking by, but basically no one disturbed me, as it was late and I was on my way to do my daily reading, and the Salute to the Silver Queen was coming up quickly.

He paused for a half-step. “It’s just like Nightmare, isn’t it?” he murmured. “Foes unending, harvests of Karma, and if you are strong and survive, you get better...”

“Yes. It’s a Karmic Buffet, and the Warp Gods are setting the table. It’s why I’m not worried about how long this takes. The longer it takes, the stronger we’re going to get. Instead of wearing us down to desperate last-stand heroics, they’re polishing and refining us. Unless they really go all out with a massive invasion force, we can do this... and if they do try that, well, the gloves come off on our end, too. There’ll be a Celestial Cascade, the Armies of Heaven will come down, and we’ll see just how Heaven handles things on their end.”

He grunted. “And they know it, so they’re playing along.”

“Only we’re not getting tired of fighting, and we’re not losing the people we are supposed to. Actually, our Healers are getting better and better, just like our fighters.” I smirked. “It won’t be long until we’re going to be able to do larger scale Revivifications of the dead, if we get enough people to Nine and Ten.”

Rorn sucked in a breath. “I’ll have to borrow some of those Healers that are coming in, then.”

“Borrow away. They are here to be taken advantage of.”

“The anvil that sharpens the sword,” he remembered.

“That they are. Just a lump of iron if they aren’t used. Use them.”

“I will.” He clenched his fist. “And thank you for not undercutting me.”

“If you were sabotaging the fight, you’d be dead. You’re trying to prove something while fighting, I have no problems with it. You want to leave when done, I’m no slaver, congrats on having a plan and wanting to do right by your people.

“Good people came to me in Nightmare. Wanting to be a king doesn’t make you a bad person. It means you know what tough love really stands for.”

He grunted again, tall and proud and ready to fight some more, and make use of all his people to burn a path to being the Kalden High King.

---------

Three Void Brothers were waiting there as I finished reading from The Book. I put it away, picked up my Shaping Hammer, and got to work on my next project, while /asking, -So, what’s up with the three of you? I thought you guys never took breaks?-

They looked at one another, kind of hiding their laughter at my tone. -We are seeking your unique perspective,- Brother Firesword /replied, watching me heat up a longsword waiting there for my attention. Actually, there were four Warp-stickers aching for some QL improvements. -It seems like a night for you to give lectures.-

-And a good excuse for you to come to The Camp and get laid. Okay, what?- They had the grace to look scandalized, despite the fact I already knew they’d arranged hook-ups. After all, sleeping with the incredibly toned and impossibly dexterous Brothers was veeeeeery sensuous... and that nasty killing rep danger vibe didn’t hurt the ol’ adrenaline rush. Them finding lovers was so not difficult.

How ticklish their Helices were, well, that was something different...

-Grandmastery,- Brother Windarrow /spoke up firmly. -To be able to kill the Interlopers, we need Grandmastery to, ah, get our damage up high enough to be effective.- He glanced at the shortest of their number.

-The Shadowknives inherit a Grandmastery called Time to Die,- the hyn /spoke in his androgynous voice. -It involves cutting at a being’s temporal existence with our dimensional awareness. However, my Brothers do not have such awareness, and so cannot emulate it.-

I calmly /shuffled them all into a chatbox, and opened up the Doors to the other Brothers, who didn’t seem all that busy and were not averse to joining in.

-Part of that is because of your low numbers. Have you contacted other Brotherhoods, or started recruiting more heavily? More minds solve problems.-

They collectively blinked. -It’s not a... no, the subject of Grandmastery has never come up on our information exchanges with other Brotherhoods. As for recruits... that is only done by the Land.- Emotions rolled behind the Firesword’s words.

-Huh. Who told you that?- I /asked all of them.

They collectively flinched. -It... has always been that way,- the Shadowknife /said softly. -One Void of each Order per landmass.-

-Minimum.-

They all froze. -What?- the distant Ancientaxe /blurted out at the correction.

-One Void Brother per landmass, minimum,- I /said mildly. -Whoever told you there weren’t more Voids out there?- I gave each of them the mental hairy eyeball. -Seriously. Did you think you were like Divine Favored, suddenly made Voids out of nowhere by the Land instead of by a Divinity?- By the way they were /gaping at me, I could see they did. -Oh, such smart people, and so dumb. The Land insures there’s always AT LEAST one Void Brother per landmass of sufficient size, by forcibly triggering your Helices, She loves you so very much.- They all /grimaced collectively. -But that’s it.

-It’s THE LAND, boyos. She doesn’t suddenly ‘create’ a Void out of nothing. Voids are already there, they just ain’t Forsaken yet. Except for a very rare few who know to make The Choice early in life, most Forsaken are just Primos until they pass the First Ceiling, hit Seven, and make The Choice.

-You’ve been watching my Ironbloods, yah? Seeing all the many new Nulls popping up... and significantly less Sources, right?- Mental shuffling as they confirmed that no-no, they had not been watching the process closely, whistling, eyes elsewhere, dig the toe in... -So you saw the ratios are approximately a hundred to one, Nulls to Sources, among humans. What do you think the ratio of Voids to Sources is?-

I was rocking them. -The same?- Brother Waterspear, who’d come Veilwalking in a few weeks back and left just as quickly, /asked from the distance, out in the Gleaming Sea. I thought he was hunting eel-men, not sure.

-Exactly so. Potential Voids are one in ten thousand among humans. Talented Voids, well, that’s a somewhat lower number...-

The four non-human Voids promptly stirred at that distinction. -And non-humans?- the Mountainhammer /grumbled from afar, the sole dhatun among them, while the humans did the math on the millions of humans running around...

-Are crossbreeds with magical races, or, they do not have Sources. What do you think replaces Sources among the hyn, Brother Shadowknife?-

He didn’t even bother to reply, but his jaw dropped at the revelation. Every hundredth hyn was-?

-Dhatun, halvyr, and urukhar are all Powered races. They have neither Nulls, nor Sources. That one in a thousand soul who totally can’t use the magic that is their birthright, what are they, do you think?-

I could hear them all /swallowing out there in the distance.

-I... Can... How do...-

It was quite funny hearing a Void Brother /stutter.

-Is it possible for us to sense these Brothers of ours?- the Firesword /interrupted the Bonescythe crisply.

-I’m not a Void with enhanced ability to sense the instinctive ability of people reacting to magic with their Auras. But I imagine that a Void who’d sensed Nulls and Sources before and after could tell something was different with potential Voids. As for those of races who have no magical ability compared to their fellows, I think it’d be like seeing a black spot in the middle of a white piece of paper, all other things being equal.-

They all started talking with one another at blindingly high speed. All Void Brothers were very smart, and very quick thinkers, so I let them blab while I worked on turning these Swords into QL 26 Weapons, good enough for Drei Slots... with Soulbound, Arsenal, and Slaughter. If they wanted better, they’d have to earn it by Naming them and building them up, and breaking into Seven.

-How do we Awaken them?- Brother Wayfist /asked, keenly interested in this.

-If they are kids, at the same time they choose their Renewal, like any Forsaken. Deny the magic, or just live without it. Otherwise, they need to break the First Ceiling, step into Seven, take their Racial/3 Level, and they have their last opportunity to do so. If they don’t, they’re basically like Human Primos forever.-

-So, it’s just a choice for them...- Brother Mindring /breathed.

-Yeah, well, the Land isn’t going a force-feed a bunch of mana down their throats to force the issue like she did you, so, yep, just another choice of being Forsaken for them.-

There was a collective /sigh from them, and I knew they’d rapidly be spinning out plans to locate and recruit more Voids. Loyalty wasn’t an issue. A Void who deviated from serving the Land was basically committing suicide. The Land loved them, and kept them so busy as a result.

But if they could spread that load out...

-Grandmastery,- the Firesword /silenced the others. -Your thoughts?-

-Mmm. Brother Shadowknife’s awareness gives him a road you all can’t follow... but really, his Time to Die is just a specialized subset of your general awareness of the flow of magic and relevant powers, right?-

-That is true...- the hyn /agreed.

-I’ve not seen you use it, but what I imagine you do is that you condense your Helix around your Weapon, and then pull out the time from what you cut, essentially killing, aging, or disrupting whatever you slice, before venting that time right back out to multiply the effect of your slice, as if multiple weapons were slashing in parallel to your own?-

He kind of gaped at me in astonishment. -Very close...- he reluctantly /admitted.

-So, do the same with magic, the rest of you lot.- I /sniffed. -Life is magic. You can already drain Casters, pull magic out of objects... and then gift it away. Pull the magic out of whatever you cut, magic is life. Then wrap it around your Weapon and burn them away with it. Just like the Shadowknife... open the wound on one end, and then multiply it when you vent it.

-I imagine that it will destroy magical effects and living or unliving creatures like a hot knife through butter. You can probably rend natural armor like tofu. Damage-wise, it’s probably akin to an Eldritch Glaive, but stacking on every blow of your Weapons, it should be extremely impressive. If your Order is especially attuned to your opponent, I believe the effect will be even worse.

-Keep in mind this is not Grandmastery with a Weapon. It’s Grand Mastery with a Helix, channeled through a Weapon. I actually doubt any of you can be weapon Grandmasters, because of your Helix, just like Powered.

-But it will do the job you want it to do, generating the massive amounts of damage against magical beings that will allow you to really bring the hammer down on them. After all, what Void Brothers excel in... is Cutting The Magic.-

That Markspace got very, very intense, very quickly, as the Shadowknife began to demonstrate the principles of Time to Die to them, and they began to adapt it to Cutting Life.

I interrupted them once. -Remember, do not Awaken any female Voids, and tell them why. Get them on one of the alternate Paths of Seven Dragons or Warlock.-

There was a moment of silence. -So...- the Firesword /murmured, -Why?- Beneath it, why were they a Brotherhood, and not more open to Sisters who could understand them and share their travails?

-Ah. Well, first, becoming a Void massively heightens your territorial instincts, your racial instincts, blah blah. For a woman, that includes maternal instincts. Men, not a problem, have some sex and go on your way, leave the kid with the woman, provide financial assistance if you’re not a total ass. You’ll never be a dad, because your Mother won’t let you, but I’m sure you all have kids, probably multiples.-

Crickets... -So, woman. Maternal instincts. But none of your children will be born Voids, which means none of them can purify the mana flowing through you. Which means that if they conceive children, the children all die stillborn, probably messily.-

Okay, maybe they’d been told female Voids were sterile. They were hard men, but this was still veeeery upsetting to them. That I could tell them this with a straight /voice was making them seriously reconsider how hardass I could be. -So, combine massive desire to have kids with total inability to have kids, and the Land forcing them to do all this shit, and She is responsible for this, and what happens? The exact same thing as any Void who loses it... only to a woman, it is Inevitable.-

More crickets. -So, the Land doesn’t ever Awaken female Voids, they just don’t work. If you do it, they’ll be dead within ten years via spontaneous combustion.-

------

I calmly /shut them out as I continued Smithing. Work to do, work to do...

And maybe I smiled a bit, because the Void Brothers were about to get a WHOLE lot deadlier... and there just might be a bunch more of them in the near future... and now they Knew.

Knowing is half the battle...