EGO

Chapter One:

Azar'kara

4E156

"State your terms." Serkukan demanded.

Jirtu stood in the darkness across from him. A strike of lightning shook the place, though Jirtu's mock-postulation did not falter.

Finally, he laughed: "Stay with the boy. So long as he survives, he'll be captured by the Hunters after your skirmish in the north. They'll take him to Azar'kara, under the care of council member Akvum."

"You intend to let the council toy with me?" he growled.

"No, my friend. I intend to scoop you up myself, in due time."

Serkukan paused. "You'd take me from Azar'kara… and turn me into one of your devices?"

"Yes, Serkukan."

The red figure did not move for a moment, then a laugh, like a man possessed, screeched out from his armor. The suit nearly buckled over in his fit of humor, while Jirtu began to chuckle along with him.

"And then we shall do our dance of death evermore."

X

A large, hulking man covered in silver fur stirred. His pointed ears twitched as his eyes closed and tensed.

"Vyncis…" he growled. "Vyncis!"

"Yes, sir." a black-kitted and black-haired man bowed before him.

"Did you feel that… that power…?"

"No. An artefact?"

He shook his head. "By the land… full-bodied and fierce was what it was. Not something. Someone. Mind, matter, and all."

"Where-to?" Vyncis rattled the wide sword at his hip.

"He's nearby. Dreslon. We'll head to Cromer." he said as he stood and threw a heavy brown coat over his already heavy fur.

"Cromer? How do you know we'll make it in time?"

The cat turned to the bulletin board behind him, where he had charted a map of something's course, with a dagger stuck in to hold it up. "We won't. Rouse Faunia. She'll need to see this, too."

"What… is this?" silver-haired and silver-plated Faunia Vleren gaped from atop the church's belltower. The rain still poured down around them, growing heavier with every minute. But it did not do well to mask the blood and the bodies in the streets below. It did not mask the blue lights of Hunters making their patrols around the city. It did not mask the terror ingrained in the citizens of a once prosperous city.

"An Etherian." the cat said.

"A what?"

Vyncis spoke up as he arrived atop the tower, "Faunia, there are wounded below. Might I request that you give succor?"

"Y-yes." she hesitated and stuttered. And then with another glance to the town below, she climbed back down the shoddy wooden ladder.

"A poor choice of words, Akvum."

The cat sighed. "I did not think we would be in the midst of one of the distracted. I had hopes that Kasian would have kept us close-knit to Calamon's people."

"Then we do not tell her. Anything."

"I wonder how long we could get away with that." he looked up to the stars in the sky above. "The old gods yet watch our struggle. Iori."

"God of ensnarement and traps."

"Capture him."

Vyncis took a deep bow. "It will be done."

At the bottom of the ladder, things were no better. And as the hours passed, they only worsened. The conditions travelling through the blizzard were arduous. Some did not make it.

It took Freiya'kara's support to even pass the iced-over villages and towns that blocked the path, when the white-coated and masked guardians of the frost came to guide them.

And then the sky opened up. Vibrant colors, howling winds, and cracks as if the sky itself had shattered, or lightning had become ensnared within it.

Shortly later, as they neared the epicenter of that sight, they found the boy.

And she approached with rapier drawn.

X

Silver-armored Faunia Vleren came out of a dark dungeon cell and let the guards clasp the steel door shut behind her.

She let out an exasperated sigh as she stepped to the opposite wall and leaned back to rest against it. The guards lining the hall every ten feet or so stood unbudging in her presense, like oppressive, stone-faced statues in the dark.

"Vleren." a pair of glowing amber eyes commanded from her side.

"Akvum, sir." she raised to attention. "What brings you all the way down here?"

"Can't blame an old cat for being curious about what goes on within his own fortress." the giant, hulking Azar – a seven-foot, pale-furred humanoid with gold-trimmed hunter plate and a sabre strung to his side, not to mention his array of brown bandoliers – emerged from the shadows.

"Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to presume–"

"At ease, Vleren. Loosen up a bit, we're all brothers in… brothers and sisters in arms." his maw came up into a welcoming smile.

She stood firm. "Freiya’kara lacked that sort of kinship. Things were more about protocol there. I'll try."

Akvum chuckled awkwardly, "So, what do you think about the boy?"

"My thoughts on Cedric, sir?"

He nodded.

"Well…" she reached into a round container strapped to her leg and withdrew a scroll, handing it to him. "Iefyr and Jirtu have testified that the… disaster in Cromer left identical marks on all of the men save for those slain by magicks. I hardly believe it, but… if he did this himself, we should have killed him in Freiya."

Akvum skimmed the scroll and returned it to her. "You're quite organized. Are you suggesting his execution?"

"It would cause no stir in the settlements, except perhaps to set an example for any would-be Sylvet."

“Freiya'kara at least teaches politics well.” Akvum smiled. "So long as there's no other use for him."

"Use? Not as... a weapon, I'd hope?"

"Ahh… nevermind. I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

"Is that all, sir?"

He nodded. "Yes, Vleren. Pray return to your chamber for now. You've earned yourself a rest."

With a firm salute and a click of her boot, she marched back down the dim, candlelit corridor she had arrived from. Once she had ventured out of earshot, a hiss came from just behind Akvum's shoulder:

"She won't be informing the mainland, then."

"I harbor doubts that she's even aware it exists. We keep Kasian unaware so long as his power remains within our control."

"Forever, then, once Tirrowin concludes the work on Axys Amar."

Akvum nodded.

"And with it," the shadow behind him continued, "may Kylinstrom see the light evermore."

Cedric lay inside the room, unmoving. But not unhearing.

The mainland. he thought. Then Llestren'vatis was right.

His mind flashed back to when he had stolen the life away from the white dragon, a single heavy thrust from his broken sword was all too much for the fast fading creature.

And in that brief instant, their minds communed. More than they had done between himself and Serkukan – to a level of communication only dreamed of by the cults who followed Lunus. And the white dragon Llestren'vatis spilled unto him forbidden knowledge of the world, ranging from mortal to ethereal, and from Caloria to Etheria.

Yes, indeed, Llestren'vatis had shown him that, in particular; a large and peculiar landmass, unlike any he had ever seen. Marred directly in the surface of the jungled lands at the center was a gigantic city, one Llestren had referred to as Calamon.

"And Calamon is where she lies." his hoarse voice echoed back from the cell walls.

But there is no way from Kylinstrom. No way off the island.

No ship could possibly make that voyage...

He sat up in his bed, and did his best to look around the cell. Even with his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could still barely make out any of the shapes around him. Especially in his left eye, which, as far as he could tell, was only seeing vague colors and auras by this point.

He held his aching head. Then he reached for his aching leg…

"Oh," he muttered, when his hand slipped through the space where his leg had once been. His mind reflected back to when Algirak launched him.

Then a grim smirk crossed his face. "That's right, isn't it? Without Etherians, my wounds won't heal so easily…"

The light that had broken the northern sky still shone down. The light of the rift beyond their world. The rift that so many had supposed would be darkness.

A black-robed figure ventured over the snowy precipice that led to the sundered forests of Freiya. In the distance stood those glistening, pearlescent pyramids forged of ethereal ice. Those villages encompassed beneath frigid dragon's breath and spite.

He reached to the leather belt that rounded his robes, and plucked free one of many vials that lay there.

Just as it reached his lips, he choked. Blood drooled from the corner of his mouth.

And a blade built of violet magic and ashen steel forced itself through his chest.

Once the blade pulled free, he slumped over. Though, only briefly, as he quickly stood himself back out of the snow, and gasped as the hole in his chest had vanished, leaving only a mark a few shades darker than his light skintone.

"That hurts, you bitch…" he swore at the figure behind him.

"Though, it confirms my theory." her seductive tenor gave hint of a smile.

"I did not expect you to make the venture to this offworld. Is there aught of import in this universe?"

"Come, Jirtu, you know full well the machinations at play here. The Relistar? Dyosius? Need I spell it out for you?"

"Please do. I fail to see what you could want such pitiful toys for. Haven't you already control over the most powerful artefacts in your world?"

"Auctdos Munor? All seven, indeed. But the Relistar–"

"The Relistar is dead." Jirtu snickered, "Destroyed by a man."

How badly I wish it could have been me… The satisfaction must have been palpable.

He cast a glance at Rykaedi.

So long have you tailed me, but had I done the same as Cedric…

His fingers brushed the pointed dagger at his waist. He swallowed a lump in his throat.

Gods, how did that feel?

"And just what are you thinking about?" Rykaedi's pale, pristine face turned into an unpracticed pout.

"Nothing… Anyhow, what I said is true. Algirak and Serkukan brawled here, and eventually… Algirak lost. Whatever happened from there is uncertain, but by the merit that our universe continues to exist, I would warrant that Dyosius has fallen into the hands of men."

"Then we should be wont to retrieve it."

"And I wish you luck in finding it–" he froze when he returned his gaze to her, though not from his own lack of words. Her hands were raised before him, fingers dangling and swaying like individual pendulums. Her eyes shone a vibrant blue.

"I won't need luck. You know where it is."

"Y…" he stumbled over resistance. Then his arms went limp and his gaze became emotionless. "Yes, milady."

"Excellent. Then let us depart at once. Where are we off to?"

Jirtu turned south. Though he couldn't see it, his eyes locked on to the exact spot where he knew the palace to be hiding behind the trees. The palace known only as Azar'kara...