Chapter 59: Ancestor
Perspective: Warnado
They had spent about an hour trying to contact Warnado's demonic ancestor and doubt was starting to set in again. He'd actually really gotten into it for a while after the Chronicler - the fleshy thing with the cool arm - had explained all of this arcane lore about what the elementals were, and why the demonic languages were pretty much constant across all worlds, and a bunch of neat stuff about crimes against nature and wars against something called the Demiurge. Most of it flew completely over Warnado's head but the Chronicler just had a way of talking about it that made it all sound really cool.
Unfortunately, when it finally offered up a way of getting in touch with demon-grandpa, the geezer didn't answer. They went to voicemail or something. Maybe he was out doing demon things. However, Warnado was still feeling confident they decided to talk to a bunch of other demons whose names the succubus hadn't crossed out on the off chance that one of them was related to him somehow, or at least knew anything about his ancestry. And the general answer was that the ancient elemental was their best lead.
They did meet some interesting characters, though. A slugman told them a lot about how powers were inherited and kept trying to get him to sign a contract. A small, black monkey-looking thing didn't tell them anything useful and just encouraged Warnado to drink frankly unhealthy quantities of green tea - according to Shadow it preyed on the sleep-deprived so that made sense. They also met a young, hunchbacked woman who breathed fire and had hooves like a horse who said she could predict the future but kept breaking down laughing before she could say anything vague - Warnado couldn't tell if this boded well or not.
And eventually they reached a lull. They'd gone through most of the names on the list and Shadow was drawing a new pattern. Amanda, seeing how Warnado didn't feel quite as fearful as he did at the start, sat cross-legged on the black void, her nose deep into a book.
Then, Shadow backed away suddenly from the circle. The chalk changed colour to the same deep purple as Warnado's demonic fire, but it glowed like embers or hot metals rather than the roaring fire he summoned. The lines began to retrace themselves, slowly etching their way across the floor with a sound like breaking glass.
He looked at Shadow.
"This you?"
"It's the call I made to the ancient elemental demon, it's only answering it now."
Warnado started to recognise the pattern. It was the same they'd used when they tried to summon the elemental. Shadow's calmness reassured him a little - after all, this was her pocket dimension, she set the rules in here - but he couldn't help but feel a little on-edge.
"So, if this thing decides it's not going to play nice, you can beat it, right?"
Shadow nodded. "Whatever this supposed ancestor of yours may be in the demon world, it can only bring a fraction of its power here. Going up against the Entity's manifestations has taught me quite a bit about severing connections of higher-dimensional beings."
"Okay," Warnado gulped. "Cool. Cool, cool, cool."
He hopped from foot to foot. Amanda stepped up beside him and rubbed him affectionately on the back. He tried to fidget a little less.
The lines finally scraped back into position. A fire, the same colour as his own, broke out in the centre of the circle and spread about. Warnado expected something to arise from it, but there was only fire. A smiling fire. It had no face, no features, but somehow Warnado could tell from the speed and height of the flames that it was smiling faintly and calmly, waiting for them to speak. He felt the urge to run.
"Hello," he forced himself to say. "I wanted to ask if you were maybe my ancestor, I guess."
"And who are you, you insignificant little mortal, to ask me such a question?" The condescension was palpable.
"Um, your descendent, possibly. I - I've got some prophecy to fulfil and I want to be strong enough to do that. So, I was hoping you could explain to me what I am, you know?"
The flame-being laughed and wouldn't stop for a solid thirty seconds. "Who put the thought in your mind that I would consort with mortals? I have no offspring, mortal or otherwise. Many inherited my power in other ways but… that is not one of them."
"Oh. Well, who has inherited your power? Could they help me?"
"More than I care to list, besides, if I were to list them your pathetic mortal life would find its natural end before I am halfway finished."
Warnado noticed how the flames began probing the summoning circle for potential weaknesses, but not finding any so far. He cocked an eyebrow at Shadow, but she seemed unconcerned. Warnado gritted his teeth, summoned fire on his arm.
"Does this jog your memory at all?"
The fire howled with laughter and surged upwards.
"Mortal, you do not realise how little that narrows it down!" It paused, then added with relish. "I don't even know what you look like."
Warnado clenched his fists. The jerk fire wanted him to lower his hood. Amanda grabbed him by the shoulder and looked him in the eyes.
"Helix, you don't have to do anything you're uncomfortable with. Especially not for this dork."
He didn't say anything for a few seconds, then forced himself to answer without particularly knowing what would come out.
"No, no, I'm good. I'm doing it. I'll do it. It's cool, probably."
"Okay," said Amanda. "As long as you're cool with it."
"I am. Really, I am. Okay, let's do this."
He turned back to the elemental and lifted his hands to his hood. This would be the first time he'd willingly shown his horns to anyone other than Amanda in years. He took a deep breath, clenched his eyes shut, and pulled it back. He waited, sightless, for a response.
"Horns? Haha! I wondered why your gauntlet was too big for you. Let me guess, he just couldn't handle the burden? Went off somewhere quietly to die? I am unsurprised, weakness begets weakness."
The fire could have manifested a hand and punched him in the mouth, and Warnado wouldn't have been as gobsmacked. He turned to Amanda, who was similarly in shock. It was as though this insult had knocked all the emotion out of him for a few seconds, leaving plenty of room for all the anger that flooded in immediately after. He Warnado towards the fire, cold fury leaving him shivering.
"My dad was not weak-"
"I have infinite time at my disposal, yet I can only think of one other time when my time felt quite as wasted as now."
The fire flared, then collapsed in on itself. The tongues of flame burrowed into the dirt like worms, leaving the chalk lines untouched atop a scorched, black surface. It was gone.
Warnado swallowed his anger with considerable difficulty.
"I get why the succubus hates him so much. I really get it."
"What a dirtbag. Thanks for stepping in back there Shadow, you really kept him in line," snarked Amanda.
Shadow sighed. "I kept the demon in the circle. Anything beyond that would not have made a difference. It's not your ancestor, that much we can be sure of. I suppose it can be of some solace, looking at how it carried itself."
"Yeah," said Warnado flatly.
He had let his eyes sink with his mood, and now they were fixed on Kay's goggles around his neck. He saw that there was a speck of dirt on the right lens and set about angrily scratching it off, imagining he was smothering that stupid fire.
Looking at the goggles, of course, reminded him of how he'd gotten them. He wondered if he should tell Kay about this session, especially as he'd done it behind Kay's back. Kay would probably be pretty supportive and give one of those speeches he loved so much, but he'd also definitely use it against Shadow. He and Shadow had never really gotten on, but now Warnado was really starting to worry they might start fighting each other instead of the Tower. He felt like a kid caught in the middle of a really, really messy divorce. A divorce where both parents had nukes.
He tried to move on from this, but as he scratched at the speck the thoughts just kept bouncing around his head, so he finally gave in and decided they should probably talk about it.
"How's the coven?" he asked.
Shadow sat down on the floor, seemingly inviting him to do the same. "Passable, better than before when I was just their object of worship. Ever since I used the whole cult leader angle I got some control back. My best mages built me a throne, Pallas even made a banner design. Other than that, someone tried poisoning me yesterday, I don't know whether it was one of the coven who did it as some bizarre proof of divinity thing or one of Kay's own fanatics. Don't care either."
Amanda and Warnado looked at each other with visible surprise and discomfort.
"Oh wow, are you sure you shouldn't pay more attention to that?" asked Amanda, eyebrows cocked.
Shadow slumped down further to the ground and shrugged. "As long as I am the target of the poisoning, we really have bigger concerns, at least the poison was almost tasteless, so it didn't spoil the wine." She then asked: "So, Amanda. You're caught in the middle of this just like Warnado, but you don't have Warnado's connection to Kay. What's your take on this? The whole civil war waiting to happen if one of us makes a wrong move."
Amanda blinked, weighed her words and then sighed.
"It's all really dumb. Kay's obviously got a lot of issues, but you keep fanning his paranoia. Like, I'm here to help Helix out, and I appreciate that he's fallen out with Astro, but this absolutely did not need to be arranged secretly. More importantly, while this wasn't a catastrophe, that stuff the elementa-whoosit said to Helix was pretty messed up and that's one less person he can talk to about it. Two less if you include Tyron."
She paused.
"That said, this whole 'King in Ash' bit Kay's doing is just weird. I don't know if this is his idea or the Book's but-"
"-It's absolutely his idea," interjected Warnado with a grimace.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean the Book isn't egging him on."
"I know the guy, Amanda, Kay does not need much convincing to grandstand. Remember that obsidian chestplate he used to wear? He told me the other night, that stuff's ceremonial - the combat version is supposed to be an obsidian alloy, that was just a set of diamond with heavy, volcanic rocks welded on. He sacrificed a lot of mobility just to show off his rank."
"By Light," Amanda groaned. "You're not serious?"
"Yeah, haven't you noticed how much faster he is now? It's not just the Book, he physically isn't carrying as much weight."
"That's so dumb."
"But yeah, he's definitely the one who came up with the King in Ash schtick. That said, he has a plan. It's not as stupid as it looks."
"Really?" snorted Amanda. "It looks pretty darned stupid from where I'm standing."
"I'm gonna ignore that. He says it's about giving people purpose - says it's more 'constructive' to talk about building a kingdom afterwards rather than just destroying the Tower."
Of course, he was lying. Kay hadn't explained any reasoning to him, he just wasn't as intense in private… mostly. All this was his best rationalisation of Kay's actions based on what he knew about the guy. The explanation that made him panic the least.
Warnado kept wanting to turn the conversation back on Shadow, but before he could turn and say something Amanda had something else to say.
"Does he mean it, though? About staying in this dump? I thought he offered to take us back to his world after this is all over."
Warnado suddenly found himself at a loss. He hadn't realised the contradiction in terms. Was Kay actually going to stay in Nexus after all this? What did it say about him if this was all just a PR bit?
A sidelong glance at Shadow revealed a sullen, glowering, almost sulky expression. She was not liking what she was hearing. He felt bad after she'd done all this to help him track down his ancestor. Then again, Amanda did have a point about the unnecessary secrecy… Or would Kay and Astro really have objected that strongly?
"I - I guess, he wouldn't just promise people something and then leave them in the lurch, right?"
"Listen Helix, the real question is, do we want to stay in Nexus after all this? Because I'd rather not."
He backed up and looked between Amanda and Shadow several times, various sounds that didn't quite amount to words slipping out of his mouth.
"Amanda, can we talk about this later?"
"Okay, but we can't avoid conversations like this forever."
"We're thirteen, not thirty, we've got plenty of time to figure out our life-plan. Anyway Shadow, I'm sorry, you're doing this cool thing, helping me find old grandpappy the demon, and we've - I've got you talking about politics. It was stupid, I shouldn't have asked."
She replied: "The thing is, you have a point. The situation would be better if I knew how to work with people better. People have always been Fire's thing. People and academics and most other things too."
Shadow seemed to let go of all notions of dignity or composure and transitioned from her slumped over sitting posture to laying down on her back, looking up at the endless dark.
"Our world was created as an experiment, how people would live in something like it. Everyone who is there is there willingly. It made things easier for me, I never had to deal with the sheer naked despair we have everywhere in the shelter. Back home people knew, no matter what happened, they had another whole world to return to if things didn't work out in the artificial one. Even in the capital, Rockhaven, which is more-or-less intrigue-and-backstabbing central with all the guild politics, everyone knows it's 'in good fun' so to speak."
She demonstratively let some lightning crackle between her fingers. "Sure, I learned a lot of things over time, that just comes with having lived for five thousand years but the only thing I ever really had going for me was power, magic. It's not a small thing but… having seen Nexus and everyone here, just makes me feel like I'm missing something essential. I had this whole talk with Astro about 'humanity' and now look at me, this isn't human. But knowing what I am not is not really helping me, I want to know what I am. The coven thinks I am a god. What even is a god?!"
Warnado felt a little iffy about this. He'd been to church a few times as a kid, but he didn't really remember much more than Light creating the world and expelling Darkness and so on, and he knew even less about what Shadow believed. But he felt bad, so he felt he had to say something.
"I mean, I don't know. Do you want to be a god?" he tried, a little desperately.
"That question would be easier to answer if I knew what being a god meant. People in my world, the one that isn't constructed, have so many different ideas of what a god should be. Some say it's this one big force that created everything, others have multiple gods who are effectively just people but bigger and involved in some convoluted family drama, others think that literally everything is a god or has a god dedicated to it. There is a lot of room for interpretation. It doesn't help that in our world we have no actual proof of divinity, something quite a few worlds here have the luxury of."
"Um, yeah-" Warnado struggled, until Amanda interjected.
"-Well, if god is too hard to define, why not define human? What are you afraid of losing?"
Shadow propped herself up on her elbows, contemplating. "I suppose it's empathy, or better the ability to relate at all. But also, the ability to rise above your instincts and urges, to be in control of your actions. I may not be exactly human myself, but I am close enough to derive great enjoyment from interacting with people. When I embrace my Void state… that all just goes away. I feel nothing. I think but I do not feel. I remember that I have some kind of connection to the people I see but I don't feel it. Back when Fire made his declaration that he would infiltrate the Tower, I told myself that I would destroy the Entity should he die. Even if I had to take all of existence and tear it apart."
Shadow took a long pause. "I don't know where that thought came from, just that it was my thought. Right now, I know that tearing existence apart is bad, I will also know it when I lose myself to the Void fully. But the feeling that stops me from doing it won't be there. I suppose I'm afraid of losing touch, which is a bad way to phrase it for the extent of its consequences."
Even Amanda seemed stumped by this. They both stood there, almost saying something and then not. This conversation just kept spiralling. Warnado had wanted to learn where he stood, but now it was more like he was falling, constantly, and had been for a very long time without realising it.
"So, are you still up for summoning my ancestor? Or should we come back later?" He smiled apologetically and felt like human garbage.
Shadow slowly got up again. "It is what we came here for. I'll be fine in the meantime. I suppose putting it all into words at least helped me understand what it is I am struggling with."
She walked over to her demonology supplies and flipped through a book. "There is one thing we can still try. I doubt that that elemental demon spoke the truth about not having offspring. I once read that older demons occasionally lose parts of themselves. The demon world is nothing like our own so metaphors are the closest I can get to explaining it, it's like a snake shedding its skin and the shed skin gaining life of its own. Maybe your ancestor is one such shedding. I can slightly modify my call so we may summon it here."
Warnado looked warily at his brass-coloured gauntlet and remembered what Shadow had said when analysing it. That it wasn't just a gauntlet, that it was an organic part of a demon. It made sense that other demons would lose pieces of themselves.
He forced some enthusiasm into his voice
"Okay, it's like we're calling the other half of a worm that got cut in half," he said. "That's good."
He watched as Shadow traced a slight modification of the pattern, slightly altering the angles. He felt his heart pound faster. The runes lit up a similar colour to before, and a demon slowly ascended through.
First, Warnado saw horns, longer than his, sharper too, but indisputably of the same white-ish grey mottling as his own. Next, reddish-brown skin, yellow, cat-like eyes and a toned torso. Finally, his legs and feet weren't unlike Freak, smokey and partly transparent. Warnado also noticed that his right hand, adorned with several brass rings, was a seething mass of purple flame barely holding its form.
The demon looked around, calmly and more than a little bored. He looked like his eyes might drift shut at any moment, not because he was actually tired but just because he found whoever he was speaking to uninteresting.
"Hello?" he asked with a comparable absence of enthusiasm. He addressed it to Shadow, who remained silent.
"Hi, are we related?" Warnado asked, waving to draw his attention.
"Oh, sorry didn't see you there, kid." He craned his head and looked Warnado up and down. "Yeah, that seems probable. I've had a handful of progenies. What's that on your wrist? Gauntlet, huh? I think I remember that one. Not because Tin-throne was particularly tough, I was actually surprised by what a pushover he was. He used to talk a lot of trash, really deserved mutilating. It is Tin-throne in there, right?"
"It is."
"That's good."
The demon smiled nostalgically before lapsing back into boredom.
"Did you make it for my dad? Or my grandad? I don't know how long it's been in the family."
"I don't know, I'm pretty sure you're only the second generation. I gave it to the first guy about twenty, thirty years ago. Something about a guy called Herobrine? I don't know, I'm not actually allowed in your world anymore - demon politics, it's complicated - I wasn't supposed to be there to begin with but now I'm super banned. Haha, primordial elementals can be so territorial. Your father passed a message to me through a demon friend, and I made a gauntlet for him. Like I said, Tin-throne had been asking for it for a while, so it was a two birds one stone situation..."
He trailed off and looked expectantly at Warnado, arms folded across his chest. Warnado took the hint.
"Actually, I meant to ask about him. He's been a little tricky to control, and according to a succubus I met apparently, he's leeching off my power. He also probably killed my dad."
"Oh, yeah, he would do that. Sorry, kid, I assumed cutting his arm off would teach him not to try anything. Then again, I didn't exactly have a close eye on the situation so… Oops."
"My dad died, and your response is 'Oops'?"
"We weren't exactly close. What do you want from me?"
"Something a little more than 'oops.' At least slap an exclamation mark on there or something. A little energy to indicate you're at least bothered."
"Okay. Oops! That better?"
"Yes."
"But yeah, the whole power leeching deal. It was intended as a mediating thing. Training wheels so your dad or grandad or whoever didn't end up cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer by accident, you get me. And, because he's human, he also just needed help to tap into his powers. He was supposed to gradually demand more and more power and that would burn Tin-throne off - like a leech."
"Then, what happened to my dad?"
"If I had to guess, he probably was too timid. Avoided using his power and treated Tin-throne like he had a monopoly on it. Your dad keeps making requests instead of giving orders. Tin-throne keeps acting like he's in a position to negotiate, so keeps getting your dad to grant concessions, Tin-throne gets more and more power. Goes from providing fuel for the car, to sitting in the back getting a free ride, to sitting in the shotgun seat giving directions, to convincing your dad to let him steer from time to time. Your dad grows weaker and weaker, and eventually he can't handle his own power. He finally tries to burn Tin-throne off and in the process only burns himself out… Yeah, that sounds right. Sorry for your loss, it sounds pretty sucky when I say it out loud."
"Thanks?"
"You're welcome. Is that all?"
"No, but not too much longer. I just want to know how I can make the opposite of what happened to dad happen to me."
"Well, you've heard my advice, give commands, use more power. Tin-throne's never healing from what I did to him, your power is just keeping him stable."
"So I should just go all out? Big, demonic attack to clear him out once and for all?"
"Well yeah, that sounds pretty good. 'Course only do that if you think you're strong enough."
"What would happen if I'm not strong enough?"
"Probably you'd just die. Pretty horribly too. Overloading is never pretty. You saw your dad, you know yourself."
"Oh. I think I'm going to have to build up to that one a little bit."
The demon's eyes drifted around the black void, plainly losing interest.
"You know, you do you, kid. Whatever you think you can handle."
Silence reigned as Warnado reflected on the disturbing choice between having his power drained by the guy who killed his dad and killing himself trying to get rid of that guy.
"Can I go now?" Asked the demon impatiently.
Just at that moment, there was a sound almost like someone knocking on a door, but distant and shimmering.
"Shadow," said a far-off voice. "Will you let me in?"
Shadow's face seemed caught between annoyance and surprise.
"Apparently, yes," said Warnado. "Sorry, what's your name?"
The demon said something unpronounceable in the human tongue and which Warnado had a hard time remembering. But it started with a 'T'.
"Tim it is."
"It is not."
"Anyway, have a nice day Tim, we hope you found our service satisfactory. We will call you back about future business."
"Please don't."
The demon faded back into the chalk lines. The knocking sound repeated.
"It's me, Astro." Silence. "Listen, I know things have been strained recently, and I said some things I kind of regret, but I need to talk to you."
Warnado and Amanda looked at each other, then at Shadow.
Shadow sighed. "Fine, come in. We just had to finish something up here first."
"Wait," Astro called. "Who's we?"
With a quick gesture Shadow made the entryway into the pocket dimension reappear, seconds after Astro came stumbling through, evidently having leaned against the other side. He straightened up, saw Amanda and Warnado, and immediately groaned.
"Oh, for mods' sake, Shadow, and you complain- No! That's not important right now. I need to talk to you in private, it's a personal matter."
He shot a warning look at Amanda and Warnado, who in turn cast a look at Shadow, silently asking if they could stay. Shadow shook her head, and they began to depart. Warnado stopped and turned.
"Thanks for the help, Shadow," he said. "Really."
Shadow replied with a smile: "And thank you two for listening to my existential rant."
They smiled half apologetically and emerged back into Nexus. On the other side, they saw Tyron pull up outside the door, put his arm against the frame and look furtively up and down the corridor. Despite his shiftiness, he seemed to be pretty happy, a doofy smile on his face. When he saw the two kids, he backed up suddenly. The smile scattered like a thin mist.
"Hi Tyron," said Warnado sleepily.
"Hello," said Tyron with some surprise.
"Hi friend!" chirped Kir slightly less sincerely than usual.
The two children emerged into the hallway. Warnado was about to go straight to his room. He felt emotionally and physically overworked, and just wanted to lie on his bed and feel like trash for a while. Amanda, however, stopped and turned on her heel.
"Aren't you supposed to be overseeing the first round of emissaries right now?"
He paused. Then, sheepishly:
"No?"
"Lucy handling it! Urgent question for Shadow about portals," explained Kir with surprising tact.
"Yeah, that," Tyron confirmed with substantially less art.
"And you came in person instead of sending a messenger?"
"I tried that," said Tyron, recovering some composure. "He kept coming back with technobabble. I need someone to explain the science to me like the idiot I am." He forced a laugh.
Amanda scrutinised him with something a little more intense and accusatory than confusion, then cocked her head and said:
"Sure, hope you get it sorted."
"Thank you. Oh and, could you not tell Kay I'm here? He won't be happy about me leaving my post to talk to Shadow. You probably haven't noticed but they're not getting on too well right now."
"Oh absolutely," she nodded.
Tyron began to approach the pocket dimension entrance, which had remained conspicuously open.
"You know Astro's in there?" Amanda asked with a certain wistfulness.
Tyron stopped again and tried to look surprised.
"Is he? Perfect. At least one of them will be able to explain the problem to me!" He forced another laugh.
Warnado didn't know why, but he felt ill.
Amanda nodded slowly. Warnado could have sworn he saw her eyes misting up, before she rapidly blinked them clear.
"Stay safe, Tyron."
Tyron swallowed loudly.
"I will."
And he slipped out of sight. The doorway closed instantaneously.
"What was that about, Amanda?"
Amanda began to walk quickly down the hall. Warnado jogged to catch up.
"Amanda, what was that?"
She turned. Her eyes were watering, teetering on the precipice of tears.
"Things are changing. It's time to figure out our life plan, Helix."
Warnado's heart felt like lead in his chest.
"If anyone asks why I'm sad, you said something stupid. Implied I looked fat, or mannish, or any other stupid thing. Get creative. And for Light's sake, don't mention any of this to Kay."
She covered her mouth and ran off down the hallway, and for the first time in a while Helix felt deeply, truly alone.
