MY ONE-SHOTS
Summary: The fight inside Mordremoth's mind did not go... as planned. At all. In which the Nightmare Court are no longer evil, Canach tells a joke, the Dream is surprisingly useful, and everybody becomes a necromancer (for a while).
Chapter eight: Master Mordremoth
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own Guild Wars 2, nor do I have anything to do with ArenaNet. Any quotes (direct or otherwise) are not owned by me. I am not receiving any profit from this story. (It's a fanfiction, duh.)
The title says it all. I'm not even sure where I'll go from here. But hey! I write weird. My fingers go on and on and on... and so something'll pop up.
This is my sylvari character (obviously) Nierwenda. (As oppose to my main, Tiffany Solestrider, human ranger.) I'm going to be using her name (rather than 'the Commander') a lot, so remember it. (Or just remember that the name you don't know is me, lol.) She's a boosted elementalist who never did the personal story, so that's confusing. But I always pretend she did, when I write stories about her.
Italics are thoughts. Bold italics are Mordremoth's thoughts.
Also... check out my other GW2 stories! (I personally think they're awesome.)
Okay, here's the story now:
"I can't... make it. It's so close now. I... I can't concentrate, can't think..." Nierwenda cries, holding her head in her hands, with hereyes squeezed tightly shut and her face screwed up in concentration. 'You want to. You do. Serve me. I created you. You want to follow my commands. Turn on your allies. Kill your enemies. Do it. I tell you to. I command you...' The dragon is not letting Nierwenda think her own thoughts. She cannot think to tell herself not to.
"You're stronger than this, Commander!" Canach shouts back at her from across the mindscape. "Focus your mind. Reject the dragon!"
'Reject the dragon... reject the dragon...' the words pound dully in Nierwenda's head. 'I am your creator. Serve my will. I... reject the dragon... no... don't... don't listen... don't listen... no... kill the enemies of Mordremoth. Do it. You cannot resist. I control everything! No... no... no... no... no... no... focus... reject the dragon...' Nierwenda opens her mouth in a wordless scream.
"Here! I see another tear in the mindscape." Canach says, having moved to the other side of the mental battle. "Come. I can help you like you helped me."
'Reject the dragon. Attack my enemies. My enemies are your enemies. My will is your command. Obey me.' the dragon's voice slows to a dull throb. 'You will listen... I can reject him you will obey me! ... I don't need to listen to him don't listen to him don't listen to him I created you! Ignore... I can resist this. I've done this for a long time. You want to. Do it. Obey your master.'
"Commander?" Canach shouts desperately. "I can't hold the rift much longer! Reject the dragon! Focus!"
'Ignore him! Ignore the dragon! Ignore him! Ignore him! Ignore him! The dragon - ignore him! Attack him! Reject him! Ignore him! I command you to attack him! Kill him! Do it! You want to! You are me! no Do not deny me! I am your creator, your master, your all! can't You need to! You cannot destroy me! I am your creator! I made you!...'
"Commander! Are you alright?" Braham shouts over Canach instructions.
"She is not alright," Canach growls. "The dragon... Commander, reject the dragon! It only wants to use you! You are your own self!"
"We can't hold the rift!" Braham cries.
'My own self... my own self... I am Mordremoth! Obey me, your creator. I command you to attack them! Kill them! You cannot deny me! Resisting is futile! Ignore them! Ignore him... I command you to attack them! Stop resisting! You are mine! You cannot win! I will dominate! I am your master, I am you, I am the one who began your existence! Pale Mother... no! I created it just as I created you! I am you! You are nobody! You cannot think! I am your thoughts, your mind, your body, your will, your... my own self no, you are not your own self. You are Mordrem. You are Mordrem. You are. You are not you, you are me. Attack them. Attack your enemies. Mordremoth enemy No, the norn is your enemy! The sylvari is a traitor, one who denies Mordremoth! Attack'
"Commander, deny the dragon! Cast it out!" Canach says again. "Focus! Reject him! The dragon is your enemy!"
"Fight it!" Braham shouts. "The rift is gone!"
"Attack the dragon!" Canach yells. "Kill the dragon!" he rushes forward with his blade drawn, Braham on his heels.
'Dragon...enemy... I created you and you will listen to me, there is no other option, you cannot deny my, rejecting me is useless, you will listen, attack them, they are the enemy, they would kill you given the chance wouldn't they would. What would happen if you attacked them? Would help me. They're not doing much good now. Attack them! Denying me is useless. Rejecting me is impossible. I am your mind, your will, I am you. There is no Nierwenda. There is no Canach. There is no Caithe. There is no Trahearne. There is no such thing as a sylvari. There never was. I am you. Faolain! Mordremoth. Obey me! I am your all! I am the one who made you! You cannot deny me! You cannot reject me! Resisting me is only pain! Listen to me and find peace! kill dragon for peace no! Slay the enemy! Don't kill people They are not people. You have killed before. Enemies you have killed. Yes... kill the enemy now! My friends! No! They are not people! They are beasts! Don't kill friends! Don't! Enemies don't deserve to live! All things grow! All things are subject to Mordremoth! People! Enemies! They aren't people! They operate on half-remembered tales of long ago. You can operate on the here and now! Obey me! You cannot deny it! ... You cannot deny it! Obey me! Reject the idea of friends and people and listen to my commands! Attack them, kill them! ... friends... no, enemies. Automatons of the past. Fabrications of legend. Legends are good! Legends are gone! Legends are past! There are no ties to the past! The past is gone! The past is past! Learn history...don't repeat... This is no past! This is now! This is not repeating! You cannot deny it! Obey me!... You cannot deny it! Rejecting me is impossible! Denying me is useless! I did it before it only delays the inevitable. You will join me. You will attack the enemy. Enemy you! Enemy them! What have they ever done to deserve your loyalty? Have they created you? Have they left you in peace for the last years? Have they - fought by my side... ... Assisted me when - you need no assistance but Mordremoth! I am your creator! I empowered your creation! Is that equal assistance killing an annoyance? Slaying over an argument? They do not deserve your loyalty! Better dead than - Nothing is worth being dead. Nothing is worth not existing. They won't exist... exactly... ... if I kill them. They don't deserve to exist. They lost their chance long ago. They attack me. ... ... good No. I cannot die. Useless things are a waste of time. They might as well attack you before you attack them.'
"No!" Canach snarls.
'They attack their creator! ... ...didn't create Braham and I will kill him for it! I cannot communicate with him, and he will die! ... ... communicate with Canach He won't listen! You must listen to survive! I will kill them. If you don't listen I will kill you! Obeying is the ultimate achievement! It is not worth death to deny me! ... ... ... ...it is! Death means not existing. Ever again. You will be nothing. You will have nowhere to go. You will cease to be. What happens when you die? Your mind goes into my service anyway. You cannot deny it! ... ... ... Obey me! ... ... ... ... if I'm you... ... Yes!... and you kill me... if you don't listen, I will!... ... then you kill yourself. I will cut myself off from you first, and you will die alone!... ... ... better alone than - do you want to die?... ... ... nobody wants... to die - Do you want to die?... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... no Then listen to me! I created you! You cannot deny it! You do not want to die! You cannot deny it! If you die, your mind will go into my service! You cannot deny it! This is not the past! You cannot deny it! The enemy lives in the past! You cannot deny it! You cannot deny it! ... ... ... ... ... I created you! I command you to kill them! I command you to end them! They do not deserve life! I am your creator, your master, your all! I am your mind, your will, your being! Can you deny it?... ... ... ... how... you can't. That's the point. have I lived... ... this far... ... if you are... ... all of me? Because I empowered your creation! ... ... ... ... how can... because I did.... ... ... I deny you... ... if you created me? Exactly! You cannot deny me!... ... ... ... ... doing it... ...now. Arguing with me. Arguing is futile. 'don't argue! Arguing is bad - ' Exactly. Arguing is futile. Denying me is useless. Rejecting me is impossible. You are not making any sense.... ... ... ... interrupting - how can I interrupt myself? ... ... ... ... ... ... no sense - You cannot have sense without me! ... I created you! How can you have sense if you don't exist? Do you want to die? Do you want to not exist? Attack them or you will die! You are in my mind, I have the power! ... ... ... ... denying you - but it does nothing. Attack them or you will die! die! you will die! ... ... they die! ... no! ...Friends! they will die, yes. Friends? No. No friends. Are you a human child? Do you need an explanation of everything? Are you a baby? no!... I... sylvari - and I created sylvari. If you are not a human, or a norn, or a charr, or an asura, or a quaggan, or skritt... you are sylvari. Sylvari are Mordrem. Sylvari are Mordrem. There is no 'you'. There is no 'I'. Mordremoth exists only. Attacking them is good. Attacking them ends them. They are trying to kill me! I am all! I am you! ... ... they wouldn't - they are! Attack them! Defend myself! They are attacking me! Retaliate! Defend! I need to defend myself! I am hurt, wounded! Defend myself! Retaliate, exact vengeance on them!' the dragon speaks in first person, confusing Nierwenda. 'Attacking... dragon... notme... Defend! They are attacking me! Retaliate against the enemy! The enemy is trying to kill me!.. ... ... ... ... if I am you yes! ... ... ...because I am sylvari Mordrem! Mordrem Guard!.. ... ... then isn't Canach... ... ... also you? And you are... ... ...telling me to attack... Yes! Attack him!... ... you? ... Why should I attack myself? You want me dead, do you not? Attack him if he is me, because you want me dead, and attack him if he is not me, because I want him dead. ... ...but no! No buts! I am you! I created you, you cannot deny it! You do not want to die. You cannot deny it! They are past! You cannot deny it! If you die, your mind will go into my service! You cannot deny it! I am you, I tell you to attack them, kill them, you want to, you do, I command you to, I am your will, your mind, your everything! I am your creator, your master, your reason for existence, your...'
Nierwenda slowly rises to her feet.
"Commander?" Braham asks, relieved. "Are you alright?"
"No!" Canach snarls. "The dragon is pleased!"
'...you will do it, I made you - dragon pleased? No!' Nierwenda hesitates. 'Yes, I am pleased, that is good, you are obeying...'
"Then she..." Braham says, going pale.
"She stopped," Canach notes. "When I said the dragon is pleased. She knows that's not good. Reinforce that with words!"
'You know it is right. Attack them. ... ... ... dragon pleased... not good... friends... I am pleased, and that is the best thing for you! Do you want to die...'
"Watch out!" Braham hollers to Canach, both in the midst of battling the dragon's physical (at least in mindscape) form.
'Friends! He's attacking my friends! They are attacking your master! Kill them! They are assaulting your creator! What have they ever done for you? They will not submit, that is their loss! Kill them!' Nierwenda lurches into hesitant motion again.
"We need to use every leverage we have," Canach shouts to Braham. "The dragon has a foothold in her mind!"
'There's a dragon in my head! In my mind! An Elder Dragon! The Elder Dragon you serve. The Elder Dragon that it is futile to resist. I created you, am I not allowed in your mind?'
"This dragon killed Eir!" Braham howls at Nierwenda.
'No! Eir is dead and the dragon killed her!' Nierwenda stops. 'She is not sylvari. She and others like her are even more steeped in the past than the rest of them! Eir is dead! By your hand! You shouldn't care. Your only devotion is to me. I created you, and I command you. You have no cause to be protesting the death of one who tried to kill me.' Nierwenda steps forward again.
"She hesitated longer that time!" Canach calls to Braham. "What else has the dragon done?"
Braham almost laughs. "What else has it done? It has taken Logan and Zojja and Trahearne and lead us as on a leash throughout his whole domain! It has sown distrust between us and Caithe! It is probably even now assaulting Tarir once again in a mad attempt to get through the Exalted to Glint's egg! Not to mention causing the crash of the Pact's airships in the first place!"
Nierwenda stops abruptly somewhere in the middle of Braham's tirade. 'This dragon is not to be trusted! Why are you doubting me? I took your three 'allies' for reasons. Mordrem are easy enough to battle for those that deny me. If, however, they are attacking well-known anti-dragon people, they will hesitate, giving me all the advantage. Trahearne is another who denies me.He must die. No! He will not succumb to the dragon. You could try convincing them, you know. Perhaps you could even try convincing your other friends who aren't destined to be Mordrem.'
"Mordremoth created us," Nierwenda says slowly. "Doesn't he then have the right to control us, command us?"
Mordremoth's avatar stops attacking. Braham and Canach stare at Nierwenda in horror.
"No..." Braham breathes. "Commander, snap out of it! This is Mordremoth we're talking about!"
"He doesn't like you, Braham. You're not a sylvari. He wants you dead. He said I could try to convince you, though."
"Since when do you take orders from an Elder Dragon?" Canach demands.
"Since I learnt that no matter what I do, he has me. There is no way to escape him. If I do not listen, he will kill me. When I die, my mind will go into his service anyway. The only way that could happen is if I was doing it all unknowingly. I figured it's better to try to mitigate it some than be another mindless minion."
"We can kill the dragon," Braham counters. "See this being that represents him? Don't you think we can kill it? If this is how it visualises itself internally - "
"He's just playing with us!" Nierwenda explodes. "You think by killing this thing we kill it's mind? How do you think that works? We're in his mind. How does killing his mind work, anyway? Convince him to join our side? Even Mordremoth hasn't ever killed a mind before - how are we to do that?"
"We can try," Canach tells her angrily. "You think that just because we think it's impossible we're going to give up? Weren't you the one who struck down Zhaitan when everyone thought it was impossible?"
"Yes, but he was a physical being! You can kill physical things. I completely agree with Rytlock on this one about metaphysical landscapes. How do you kill something mentally? He created us, and he will have control of our minds after death. There is no way to escape it! If it is impossible to kill it physically now, and killing it mentally makes no sense, logically - "
"Minds don't work on logic! If this is how Mordremoth imagines himself, then killing it will kill him! A mind is the beliefs you hold. If you believe that you are dead, then you will be, mentally."
"And who says this is Mordremoth's inner self? Why not another mannequin like what he set us at earlier, to make us think we've killed him? It could be a stall so he can go back to sleep and come back when the sylvari as a race is less hardy."
"We can feel him in our minds even if he's not actively - "
"You couldn't feel him before he woke up," Nierwenda says. "If he sleeps now you'll never know, especially if it's in conjunction with his supposed death."
"Scarlet could," Braham counters. "Her mind was exposed to Mordremoth before he awoke, and she was listening to him then."
"Yeah, and he wasn't even awake yet," Nierwenda explains. "People were falling left and right to him before he ever was awake. Doesn't that say something to his power?"
"Her mind was exposed to the dragon, much less clearly than ours have been," Canach says. "If he did go back to sleep, we would still feel him, perhaps even be in the same link we have now, but more dangerous because we think he is dead."
"That's the point," Nierwenda says. "Making sylvari vulnerable in any way he can. If I can't convince you he'll attack and kill you! I can't hold him off much longer!"
"You are convincing him?" Braham asks sarcastically.
"And don't you want us alive?" Canach queries.
"Of course, that's why I'm trying to convince you!" Nierwenda snarls. "I do not want you dead!"
Mordremoth's 'physical' representation launches an attack.
"That's a nice sentiment, Commander, but it comes from the wrong side of the battlefield," Canach says, shaking his head.
"No! You will listen to me!" Nierwenda cries. "Don't..." she runs forward.
'End them. They will not listen. You have tried, and you can see they will not listen. End them.... At least Braham's mind won't be forced into your service after death.'
Nierwenda stops and casts a fireball at Braham.
"Commander?" he shouts, dodging out of the way.
"Come here!" Canach shouts, erecting his shield. "Stay by me!"
Nierwenda laughs. "I'm smarter than that, Canach. I did use that shield for quite a bit, earlier. Against you, come to think of it. The you that should be."
"We can't stay passive against her," Canach tells Braham. "We'll need to attack."
Braham grimaces. "I know... but that doesn't mean I have to like it."
"I quite agree."
"Do you think one of us could hold her off while we attack the dragon?"
"We need as many people as possible... and we're already at a disadvantage with her... incapacitated."
"Right, right. Let's get this over with." Braham sighs. It goes unspoken that both should aim for temporarily disabling her, rather than the alternative.
Canach drops his shield, and the two go on the offensive.
Nierwenda laughs, throwing more fireballs at them.
"This is giving me flashbacks to Scarlet," Braham tells Canach as he tries to get closer to Nierwenda.
Canach nods with a tight expression. The dragon, now it had turned Nierwenda, is focusing on him now. Not succeeding, of course.
"My new magic wasn't enough. Mordremoth took us all," says a voice behind them.
Braham whirls around to see Rytlock standing there, weapons drawn. Nierwenda stumbles to a halt, staring into space for a brief second. 'Rytlock? No! Don't attack him! He joined us. He is on our side. But you couldn't communicate...? I can communicate with your other 'sylvari' friends. They convinced him. At least they've seen sense.'
"Rytlock?" Braham asks incredulously.
"It's a trick, like the others!" Canach yells, dodging another attack from Nierwenda. "Attack it!"
"And ignore the Commander?"
"For now, we'll have to. As long as she stays ranged - "
"I can do anything!" Nierwenda says, laughing. "Anything, with the dragon on my side."
Nierwenda and Mordremoth's avatar move seamlessly together, coordinating attacks mentally.
"I'll hold them off, you attack the Rytlock copy!" Braham tells Canach, moving into a defensive position between Canach and the dragon. Canach nods sharply.
A few minutes later, Braham espies another rift. "Can you hold your own while I activate the rift?"
"Make it quick!" Canach replies desperately. "The copy is wounded, but - "
"That's no copy," Nierwenda laughs. "Caithe or Trahearne or both have joined us, and convinced Rytlock to our side as well."
"It seems like the dragon deceives his own followers," Canach says scornfully. "How could Rytlock even get in the mindscape? He's no sylvari!"
"Hey! I'm not sylvari either!" Braham calls.
"Because we are using Trahearne's connection. I doubt Trahearne would let a turned Mordrem through."
"Unless he's the one who turned."
"Whatever else he is, he definitely has a strong mind," Canach counters. "I doubt he'd turn."
"The rift is open!" Braham shouts. The rift begins... pulling. Nierwenda pauses for a few minutes, busy within her mind, while the Rytlock copy is pulled into the rift.
"The copy didn't vanish, it joined us!" Canach calls. "We're taking control!"
"That's better. Mordremoth! Get ready to bleed!" the Rytlock copy roars. "What's wrong with you, Commander?"
"The dragon's taken her," Canach says through gritted teeth.
"In that case, I'll relieve her of her command," Rytlock snarls, heading towards her.
"Rytlock can handle her well enough - let's focus on Mordremoth," Braham tells Canach.
"Oh, Rytlock. Don't leave!" Nierwenda calls.
"It's Scarlet all over again," Braham says, shaking his head.
"Join the team, Canach," Marjory says, appearing by Nierwenda's side. "We're all part of the dragon now."
"Good to see you, Jory," Nierwenda says with an evil grin.
"I cannot be defeated," Mordremoth's avatar says, in what could be called a hint of glee.
Rytlock switches his target to Marjory, while Canach goes after another rift. The three - Nierwenda, Marjory, and Mordremoth's avatar - move together in a deadly grace. Braham joins Rytlock, flanking Nierwenda and taking her interest, letting Rytlock deal with Marjory.
"It's open!" Canach shouts.
"Do it!" Braham hollers back.
The Commander stumbles again, holding her head. 'Why are they leaving again? Weren't they convinced? The enemy is disrupting my control! Defend that 'rift'! Understood.'
"Thanks..." Marjory says, trailing off puzzledly. "Oh. Time to end this." she switches her focus to Nierwenda and begins attacking. Nierwenda fends her and Rytlock off with just a bit of hardship, taking a step back.
"It's going for a massive strike! Get under cover!" Canach hollers, his shield springing up.
"Or take to the sky," Nierwenda laughs with a manic gleam in her eye. She launches into the air on her glider, soaring across the mindscape before spiraling down and landing right by the rift.
Braham, Rytlock, and Marjory are protected within Canach's shield. Nierwenda starts going about protecting the rift, rooting to the ground and sprouting leafy turrets, (racial sylvari elite skill) all unaffected by Mordremoth's attack.
As soon as it is safe, Marjory and Braham go after Nierwenda, but are seriously impeded by her turrets.
Marjory dodges a missile from one of the turrets, placing her in the middle of Nierwenda's air-generated electric field, putting her in shock for several seconds, during which her turrets and fireballs finish her off. Braham yelps in surprise.
"Never should have left me behind," Caithe says darkly, attacking Canach. "You know I can't be trusted."
"Seems like I can trust you to be sensible, though," Nierwenda cackles.
"Oh, certainly," Caithe says, moving with a deadly grace around the Rytlock copy in the dance of battle, leading him slowly in the direction of the rift.
"They're taking out allies!" Braham yells to Canach. "She took down the Marjory copy!"
"And all she did was incapacitate me long enough to explain the importance of Mordremoth's survival," Marjory says gleefully from behind him. Braham barely dodges her lethal attack.
"And the sooner Mordremoth's taken control, the sooner we can leave this mindscape!" Rytlock hollers, turning on Canach with Caithe.
"We're losing here!" Braham hollers to Canach. "I can't get close to the rift, and the copies are defending it!"
"Defeat the copies!" Canach yells back. "And stay away from the turrets - if she uproots to come after us they'll disappear and we can get to the rift!"
Braham scrambles out of the turrets' range, fiercely battling with the Marjory copy. And then Caithe appears behind him, giving him a poisonous cut on the back. Braham hollers in surprise, alerting Canach, who is battleing the Rytlock copy, to his predicament.
The Caithe copy stealths before Braham can counterattack, the effort of which allows Marjory to injure him and draw on his lifeforce.
"Get over here!" Canach hollers, erecting his shield. Braham races inside of the protective bubble. The copies of Caithe, Rytlock, and Marjory form a triangle outside the bubble, waiting for it to go down. Conferring in whispers, the two construct a plan.
When Canach releases the shield, Braham launches himself sideways at Marjory, who thought he would attack Rytlock, surprising her. Canach does battle with Caithe directly, expertly swinging his blade in such a way as to make stealth not as good an option as normally. They both ignore Rytlock for the time being, simply dodging his attacks.
"The Marjory copy is down!" Braham reports, turning to deal with Rytlock. Caithe stealths away for a minute, so Canach joins Braham against Rytlock.
"Watch out!" Canach shouts, and Braham narrowly escapes one of Nierwenda's fire attacks.
"She's uprooted! Get the rift!" Braham hollers.
Both of them abandon the fight with the Rytlock copy and dash towards the rift, Braham lagging behind because of his drained lifeforce and the poison the Caithe-copy had inflicted on him.
The Marjory copy springs back into existence, and Braham runs toward the rift. He aids Canach in getting it open, causing Nierwenda to stumble and the copies to join them.
Braham espies Mordremoth's avatar pausing, and shouts at Canach to pull up the shield. Braham barely makes it within the bubble of protection before the mindscape is wracked with the dragon's powerful attack. The five allies (including Marjory, Rytlock, and Caithe) carefully plan their attack strategy. 'Don't die' is stressed for all of them; for the other three because if they do, they turn again, and for Braham and Canach because they aren't copies.
Nierwenda glides down near the rift again, which Canach notices is within his shield-bubble.
"Can you hold it?" Braham asks.
"As long as I'm not distracted," Canach replies. "However, that is no longer guaranteed, given... circumstances."
Braham nods in understanding. "Okay, new strategy. You three attack Nierwenda - quickly now, before she gets her turret things set-up, and I'll activate the rift when it's necessary. If you have a ranged attack, stay within the bubble.
The copies of Caithe, Rytlock, and Marjory nod, before attacking Nierwenda.
"We've got trouble," Caithe reports. "Mordremoth's avatar is heading this way."
"Alright, defeat those turrets and then focus fire on Mordremoth," Braham directs. "I'm going to uproot his control again."
"This won't end well - for you," calls a new copy.
"Trahearne?" Canach asks skeptically. "Yeah, these are definitely illusions."
"You doubted that?" Braham asks as he wrestles with the rift.
"Kind of hard to not doubt anything, what with being unable to trust my own thoughts and all," Canach snarls back.
Braham nods, and finally gets the rift activated.
"Commander, no!" the Trahearne copy shouts in dismay.
"The dragon's taken her, Marshal," Braham informs him.
"Trahearne, what's gotten into you?" Nierwenda asks. "The dragon created us. Mordremoth is our master. I thought you'd seen sense."
"Scarlet to the core," Braham mutters to Canach.
"No, it's Mordremoth." Canach replies. Braham nods.
"I thought the same of you," the Trahearne-copy replies gravely. "It appears I was wrong."
Nierwenda shrieks in dismay, and a whirlwind appears around her, lightning lashing out in random directions. She charges at the Trahearne-copy, and the turrets vanish. The other copies converge on her, but several of them hit hidden shock-fields, and Nierwenda calls down a firestorm, turning several of them back. Following that, she turns the rest of them with ease. Then, she turns towards Canach and Braham.
"I can't... can't hold it!" Canach shouts desperately. "The dragon - "
"Let's get her," Braham says determinedly. "Can you fight?"
"A bit."
"We'll take what we've got."
"No, you won't," the Caithe-copy laughs, appearing behind them now the shield is down. She spins around the pair with her poisonous blades, slashing all around.
The Marjory copy approaches Braham from behind and begins draining his lifeforce even more. Braham stumbles over to Canach and picks up the shield, activating it. The shield flings the copies of Caithe and Marjory away from them, but Marjory keeps pulling his lifeforce gleefully. The shield begins flickering as Braham loses focus.
The Trahearne-copy approaches and begins using ranged attacks. The copies of Caithe and Rytlock are waiting for the shield to go down completely.
Canach takes the shield back, and the protective bubble stops flickering, or at least not quite as much. Then it shrinks and stabilizes. In the center, they are out of melee range, but all other attacks are getting to them. Braham falls unconscious from lifeforce loss. Marjory keeps drawing it.
The shield shudders and flickers violently, all of a sudden. Canach looks up to see the avatar of Mordremoth hammering on it. It flickers and flashes with each blow. And the dragon is still pounding in his head. Canach stumbles over to the rift and activates it, the protective bubble moving along with him to keep him in the center. Braham is now at the edge, in range of Trahearne's blade, and he begins drawing Braham's lifeforce as well.
The rift flashes as Canach activates it, and the steep decline of Braham's lifeforce cuts off abruptly as Marjory and Trahearne's copies realign themselves, along with Caithe and Rytlock.
The two necromancers instantly reverse the lifeforce flow, feeding Braham with his own lifeforce. Caithe and Rytlock's copies turn on the dragon's avatar and Nierwenda, who'd shuddered to a momentary stop when the rift activated.
Braham is revived a lot quicker than he went down, as a result of being fed with lifeforce from two sources.
Both necromancers realize that they are flip-flopping allegiances depending on the efforts of their allies/enemies, and pour all of their own lifeforce into feeding Braham as well as Canach. When the Caithe and Rytlock copies realize what's going on, they arrange for the necromancers to draw on all the copies' lifeforce and feed the two who aren't copies.
Canach and Braham hold off Nierwenda and Mordremoth as they are fed with lifeforce, keeping the copies from turning. Almost fully rejuvenated from the lifeforce of four other people, they are at the peak of endurance and fully capable of evening the odds against the dragon and Nierwenda.
The copies begin flickering and fading slowly as they run out of lifeforce.
Nierwenda roots to the ground and sprouts turrets, taking out the copies. This also makes their lifeforce nonexistent, even what they'd already poured into Braham and Canach, which results in Braham and Canach losing their reserves of energy. And the copies are now on Mordremoth's side again. Braham isn't unconscious again, because he still has his own lifeforce.
Braham activates the shield and runs back to the rift, Canach on his heels, still trying to shut out the dragon. Mordremoth roars terribly and launches the fiercest mental attack yet, incapacitating Canach while he fights it off. The two are still a good distance from the rift, and Braham can't leave Canach outside of the shield.
Mordremoth's avatar and Nierwenda (along with the copies) start attacking the shield, which turns his concentration upside down, resulting in furious flickering the first few times, until he can anticipate each blow. It takes a lot of energy to maintain, and Marjory and Trahearne also started drawing his lifeforce again, and purposely feeding it to Nierwenda and Mordremoth's avatar in case they get turned again.
"A tactic used for our benefit once now works against us," Braham mutters to himself ruefully, wondering what to do. Holding the shield is the only thing he can do - he has no ranged attacks, especially holding the activated shield.
"I have the power, here," Nierwenda taunts. "It's too bad you don't have any, or you could actually mount a decent offensive."
"Oh, now she's using first-person. She's totally aligned with the dragon now," Braham grimaces. Before then, it had always been 'we'. But having power... "we have power too!" Braham hollers. "We just haven't used it yet! Canach, how do you think they're doing these copies?"
"Imagination... I'd guess..." Canach snarls. "don't... talk to... me..."
Braham nods, and tries to imagine somebody, anybody... and he can't focus enough to do anybody but who's in front of him. 'this'll baffle the dragon...' he thinks triumphantly.
Next to him, a flickering copy of Mordremoth's avatar appears. 'Imagination, huh? Can I give it necromantic powers?'
The Mordremoth copy moves jerkily out of the shield and starts pounding on Nierwenda, but it's strikes just go through her. Braham tries to imagine the effect if they didn't go through, but when he did the copy vanished. 'I don't have the mental capacity for this, and Canach's too busy defending his own mind to do anything.'
"No power, no decent offensive," Nierwenda reiterates with a smirk.
Braham loses consciousness from lifeforce loss again, and the shield disappears. Canach absently reaches out a hand to activate it again, but the pounding of Mordremoth's avatar disrupts the necessary concentration to defend his mind, and he can't spare any attention to negating it. And now the necromancers are drawing on his lifeforce.
He takes his hand off the shield, leaving him physically vulnerable.
But mentally, he strikes back at the dragon in one last desperate stand. The only reason he manages this is because at the same time, sylvari all over Tyria feel the desperation he feels, bleeding through the Dream and into all the sylvari, and they react with a strike back. Trahearne feels it, maintaining the connection into Mordremoth's mind. Caithe feels it, keeping out the onslaught of Mordrem. The Pale Tree feels it, still in an unconscious state far to the east. Sylvari all over feel it, and react. Turned sylvari feel it and lash out at the dragon, him all the more vulnerable for having them in his mind already. The sylvari race reacts as a whole, collapsing all over Tyria with their mental attack on the dragon.
This reaction to the desperation of one of their own heightens the awareness of sylvari to empathy felt with their fellow sylvari through the Dream, and sylvari become one with the Dream, lashing out at Mordremoth.
In the mindscape, representations of sylvari from all over Tyria appear. But they are just representations - for all the power of the Dream and the dragon's connection, they are just visual reminders of the hardiness of the sylvari race. The true representation of Caithe appears in the midst of these, the real Caithe, which is much more solid than the others, and the dragon-generated copy winks out. A representation of Trahearne does not appear however - outside, he knows he needs to keep the connection that Braham and Canach have with reality working, or else they will fail.
Nierwenda collapses on her knees with a shriek shrill enough to rend the sky, clawing at her head and curling in on herself, trying to fight off the dragon's mind inducing her willing compliance with him so much. "No!" she shrieks aloud and in her mind.
The visual representation of the sylvari race flickers and comes back more, in response to Nierwenda's distress and agony.
The avatar of Mordremoth pauses, fighting for dominance mentally. All over the Heart of Maguuma, Mordrem Guard fighting Pact troops stiffen, launching their own attack to claw free of the dragon. They drop their weapons, stunning the Pact troops locked in battle with them. The more suspicious of them keep their guard up, but the rest of them realize what is happening, especially when some sylvari who didn't turn report what is going on, and begin encouraging the sylvari.
Mordremoth's attack on Canach's mind lowers in intensity as it tries to keep it's minions from breaking free. Canach reengages the shield, expanding it in size and pushing the Marjory and Trahearne copies far enough away to break the lifeforce draw on Braham. The representation of Caithe vanishes before she can see the lifeforce stop, however.
Outside the mindscape, Trahearne maintains the connection Braham and Canach have. Nierwenda's connection vanished the moment the dragon took her - the dragon maintains her connection now.
Caithe leaps to her feet. "Withdraw Braham!" she says wildly. "he's dying!" she doesn't bother explaining about the copies, which would just sow confusion.
Trahearne carefully unravels the connection in such a way as to pull him back to reality.
Within the mindscape, Canach sees Braham's unconscious form wink out, and hopes he's all right.
Caithe's representation comes back, and the determination she feels at breaking the dragon bleeds through the Dream, infecting other sylvari with the need to end the dragon. The representations of all the sylvari multiply as they win the battle for their own freedom and join the attack on Mordremoth.
Mordremoth's mental fortitude is failing, and numerous Mordrem which aren't turned sylvari collapse as Mordremoth is the one defending.
Outside, the Mordrem onslaught against Trahearne, Marjory, Rytlock, and the unconscious Caithe and Braham multiplies vastly, as does the attack on Trahearne's mind. It is all he can do to maintain Canach's connection and keep his mind his own.
Marjory takes an equal measure of lifeforce from Rytlock and herself to feed Braham with. Not a lot, but enough to jumpstart Braham's regenerating lifeforce. She also takes lots of lifeforce from the Mordrem, reviving Braham quickly.
Once Braham is up, she regenerates the rest of the group's lifeforce, and the three of them push back the onslaught of Mordrem. When there is no more capacity for lifeforce in them, she funnels it to Trahearne and Caithe, strengthening Caithe's presence in the mindscape and aiding Trahearne's mental battle, as well as weakening Mordremoth. Stealing lifeforce from Mordrem does not kill them, as the lifeforce of Mordrem is supplied by the jungle dragon.
So Marjory is able to steal massive amounts of lifeforce at once, channeling more than she had ever channeled before. The only reason she does not explode from so much energy is the fact that she is funneling it to other people. Caithe and Trahearne can use an almost endless supply of lifeforce, as can Canach, who has been unconscious since he first entered the mindscape.
Inside, Caithe becomes the only true representation, aside from Nierwenda and Canach, to be physically substantial. She shadowsteps around the copies, taking injuries. The Trahearne and Marjory copies begin taking her lifeforce, but she seems to be mostly unaffected by it. Canach's lifeforce levels leap up, but he doesn't question it.
Outside, the real Marjory notices Caithe's lifeforce reserves dropping, and stops funneling to Trahearne. He is okay enough to not need it as much as Caithe does. She channels it all to Caithe, instead, but she is barely keeping up with her decreasing lifeforce. It's as if two other necromancers are stealing her lifeforce at the same time, and she is only channeling enough into Caithe to negate most of it. Her reserves are still dropping. She wouldn't show being affected by it, since it's just her reserves, but once her reserves hit rock bottom it will start impeding her performance.
Inside the mindscape, Caithe does her best to hold off the dragon and the copies, while Canach reactivates the rift. The copies switch sides, amazing Caithe for a brief moment, before the affinity with Dream linking her to Canach lets her know that's what he expected. Now the Marjory and Trahearne copies stopped drawing her lifeforce.
Outside, the real Marjory notices Caithe's reserves shoot up from her own channeling, only depleteing on the normal scale (at least, normal for sustaining a representation in a mindscape). Marjory quickly cuts the supply rate in half, and funnels the other half to Trahearne. She slows up on the amount of lifeforce she is channeling so she doesn't channel more than she can stand when Caithe and Trahearne don't need it anymore.
She tops off Rytlock and Braham's lifeforce, before thinning the flow of lifeforce to Trahearne and Caithe to the amount they are using, keeping their lifeforce amount stable.
Within the mindscape, Nierwenda is still incapacitated with trying to resist the dragon - the input from her now-faint connection with Dream reminds her who she is, and she is fighting with everything she has. She launches her own will at the dragon's mind, attacking like the rest of the sylvari race, attacking mentally.
The sylvari who are all just visible representations are watching the battle, and wondering what they can do to help outside of attacking the dragon. Caithe notices this, and tells them what is going on. Then, putting two and two together, she realizes why the Marjory and Trahearne copies lifeforce drain didn't have much affect, and how she is the only substantial representation, and she winks out of the mindscape.
Outside, she instantly she goes into shock from the lifeforce Marjory is funneling. Marjory quickly switches the lifeforce feed to Trahearne, before easing up on the lifeforce she is drawing to an amount that she can survive.
"How do you do that, Marjory?" Caithe asks.
"I just steal the dragon's lifeforce and feed it to you. You were dropping terribly a minute ago, what happened?"
"Mordremoth has fake versions of you and Trahearne fighting Canach inside that mindscape, and they were draining me. Thanks for keeping it up. All the sylvari - all the sylvari - are fighting back, but they can't do anything because they're insubstantial. Do you think that would work for them too?"
"I don't see why not," Marjory replies. "Is there any way you can warn me when you're waking up next time? The level of lifeforce boost it takes to keep your reserves up properly when you're unconscious - in the mindscape, I suppose - almost killed you when you came out of it."
"I don't know how I could. Just let me drop at a normal rate. I've managed that way my whole life, I'll be fine."
"Got it."
Caithe promptly enters the mindscape again, and Marjory resumes funneling lifeforce into her, but less than before.
Inside, Caithe reappears in the mindscape and informs the watching sylvari what is happening and how to help, before rejoining the battle.
"Marjory - the real Marjory - is keeping your lifeforce levels up," she informs him. Canach nods, glad the source is more dependable than the copies.
A lot of copies wink out for several minutes, before coming back stronger than ever and assisting in the battle.
Outside, Mordremoth drops focus on anything except cutting Canach's connection, knowing that will cut the other connections, as Canach is the focal point for the sylvari race rallying against him. His mental attack on Trahearne is all of him, and the only thing he spares his mental fortitude for is hundreds of Mordrem attacking the small defense.
This results in the necromancers channeling his lifeforce all over his jungle no longer having something to draw from, and only Marjory's channeling does anything. When Mordremoth realizes that the reason for his slowly depleting lifeforce is Marjory's channeling, he stops the onslaught of Mordrem.
Without a source of lifeforce for Marjory to channel, Canach and Caithe's reserves begin dropping. There is nothing Marjory can do about that - Caithe will have to go back to being a simple bystander, and Canach had been fine before she started channeling - but that channeling had been the only reason Trahearne manages to keep his mind his own.
She quickly explains the situation to Braham and Rytlock, and at their agreement (Braham remembering this happening in the mindscape) she begins taking their lifeforce and funneling it into Trahearne. It is by no means the level she'd been channeling it before, but it helps.
Within the mindscape, Caithe realizes her reserves are dropping, and that something must have happened outside. Which means she only has a limited time before she gets insubstantial again.
The mental connection with Mordremoth means all the sylvari know what is happening to their lifeforce supply, and redouble their efforts at bringing the dragon down.
Suddenly, Canach notices that Mordremoth is preparing for another massive attack, and he notices too late to tell what is going on. And his shield isn't big enough to protect them all anyway.
He erects the shield and shouts to get under protection, but very few get under it. The rest have their lifeforce severely depleted, but rather than depleting their lifeforce and then killing them, they simply go insubstantial. And the copies turn.
So underneath the shield is Canach, Caithe, and one or two others.
"We need to pool our consciousness," Canach tells them, remembering how Braham tried to come up with a copy of his own. "We're not powerful enough on our own."
"The Dream should let us do that," one of the sylvari remarks. "If we need to pool our consciousness."
"Nobody else will be able to help, though," Caithe warns. "Their lifeforce is too depleted."
"Well, either Braham has got a fantastic mind, or it's ridiculously easy to summon our own copies," Canach says, before explaining what his idea is.
"You be the focal point," Caithe tells him. "You know how it's done better than we do."
Canach nods grimly, before embracing the Dream and melding his consciousness with the other four. Their minds work in conjunction with one another, and Canach constructs a copy of Marjory, funneling lifeforce into the insubstantial sylvari from Mordremoth.
Caithe makes sure the shield stays up by keeping a hand on the device, but her mind is tangled up with the other four.
It strains the limits of the five sylvari consciousness to keep the Marjory copy funneling, but as more and more sylvari gain enough lifeforce to become substantial, they join the effort, until there are ten consciousnesses fueling the copy, at which point Canach constructs a copy of Trahearne doing the same thing. The exponential substantializing of the sylvari race within Mordremoth's mindscape is incredible to witness.
Outside, Marjory notices Caithe and Canach's reserves go to an all-time low temporarily, before soaring back up. They stay near the peak of her limit without declining, and Marjory decides that somebody in the mindscape must be funneling into them.
She pulls a token amount of lifeforce from Caithe as a warning that she's about to pull more, and gives it to Trahearne, who is on the verge of failing the mental battle. She does the same from Canach.
Inside, Canach feels the slight depleting of his lifeforce, and Caithe interprets it and tells him what is happening. Canach adjusts the copies funneling lifeforce to keep him and Caithe going.
Outside, after Marjory sees Caithe and Canach's lifeforce go back up, she starts drawing steadily from both of them, plus herself, Rytlock and Braham. Trahearne is now just barely holding on. Marjory is forced to draw more and more deeply on Caithe and Canach's reserves.
Inside, Canach constucts more and more necromancers to draw from Mordremoth and funnel to the sylvari race. He tried to have more than one copy of Marjory, but that did not work, as only one representation/copy can be generated by the same mind or joining of minds.
However, Canach is not limited for necromancers to conjure up, (imagining a whole new person is too taxing on the mental joining) as the other sylvari whose minds he is joined with know others who are necromancers.
Mordremoth turns the Marjory and Trahearne copies back to him, and try to pull lifeforce back into himself, but there are now more pulling from Mordremoth than giving to him. Mordremoth lets the Rytlock copy wink out, and generates more necromancers to counter the now-severe lifeforce draw.
Canach now prioritizes which sylvari to give lifeforce to, searching out those that are necromancers. Those that are necromancers he delegates to upholding his and Caithe's reserves.
The mental joining means that speech is not necessary, and simple thought is all that is necessary, and everybody understands the whys. Caithe drops out of the mindscape to figure out exactly what Marjory is doing, and when she returns, the awareness that if Trahearne fails, Canach fails, which means the whole construct fails, results in everybody keeping their reserves up.
Outside, Marjory observes that Caithe and Canach's reserves stay at full no matter how she draws on them, and decides to go all out.
Inside, the sylvari are surprised at the vehement drawing of lifeforce, but, knowing why, the necromancers simply keep going.
The multitude of mentally-generated necromancers pulling on Mordremoth's lifeforce keeps multiplying, and when there are no more known necromancers, Canach simply pulls up other people copies and gives them necromantic powers.
More and more sylvari are being added to the mental pool within the Dream, all absorbing Mordremoth's lifeforce with the many necromancers feeding them.
Outside, Marjory draws more lifeforce than she has ever drawn before, funneling it into Trahearne. The amount of lifeforce used in his battle with Mordremoth is stunning, and even drawing all she can handle that is safe - at one point she'd drawn too much and Caithe and Canach's reserves hadn't jumped up quick enough, at which point she stopped - Trahearne is barely holding on.
Mordremoth, realizing that his lifeforce is being drawn anyway, sends his hordes against the group again. Marjory relishes in drawing more lifeforce from Mordremoth, knowing it can only hurt his chances.
Inside, the amount of lifeforce Mordremoth has goes into a slightly steeper decline. It is more of a change than any of the mentally-generated necromancers have affected, and the only conclusion the pool of sylvari can make is that Marjory started drawing from the dragon again, and real necromancers are much more effective than imagined ones.
Outside, Trahearne's lifeforce supply starts climbing quickly. Marjory slowly cuts the lifeforce drawn from Caithe and Canach, taking instead from the dragon.
Inside, Caithe and Canach realize they are being fed more lifeforce than they need, and redirect that to the multitude of still-insubstantial sylvari 'We've got a whole race to provide lifeforce for, we're not going to run out anytime soon!' which only helps the offensive against the dragon.
Outside, Marjory sees confirmation that Canach and Caithe registered the depleting draw in that their lifeforce, as it leveled out rather then climbing past their limit as would have happened if they hadn't noticed. She keeps depleting the amount she draws from the two unconscious sylvari, depending on the dragon for keeping Trahearne's supply up, until she is not taking anything from Caithe or Canach, but rather feeding them.
Inside, the mental necromancers stop feeding Caithe and Canach at all, as they have their own source. At the same time, Mordremoth's rate of lifeforce loss just continues in a steep decline.
Outside, Trahearne is still unresponsive, doing all he can to maintain Canach's connection and staying his own mind and not submitting.
Caithe wakes up and updates Marjory on the battle, including that Mordremoth is purely focusing on taking over Trahearne's mind and attacking them.
"Well, no wonder he isn't waking up, no matter how much lifeforce I pour into him," Marjory remarks. "Mordremoth's supply of Mordrem isn't decreasing much - Rytlock and Braham are just holding them off so I can draw more at a time."
"Good. Can you draw lifeforce from the jungle?"
"I can try," Marjory shrugs, "but I've never been able to draw from it before."
"Well, it's not just any jungle," Caithe reminds her.
Marjory tries to draw from the jungle, and gets an influx of lifeforce. "It works," she reports.
"Alright, this could turn the tide at last," Caithe says, reentering the mindscape.
Within the mindscape, the other sylvari realize what other necromancers can do, but before they all disappear to speak to necromancers who had been giving them lifeforce before Mordremoth stopped attack, Caithe reminds them that doing so would negate half the mentally-generated necromancers.
"One at a time, then, one at a time. Even one necromancer does a lot," somebody says.
So one by one, sylvari who know necromancers around them in the Maguuma jungle disappear for a few minutes before popping back in again, without the need of the mental necromancers to funnel to them, rather rejuvenating more and more sylvari.
Mordremoth's lifeforce goes down as more and more necromancers outside draw from the jungle, and as other necromancers travel to Maguuma via waypoint or asura gate to draw the lifeforce of the jungle.
The rate of Mordremoth's lifeforce decline is now more than the jungle can replace with his own mentally-generated necromancers, so he abandons even that attempt and focuses even more purely on Trahearne, abandoning even his Mordrem attacking Trahearne.
Outside, the Mordrem go limp, and Marjory switches to stealing lifeforce purely from the jungle around her to keep Trahearne's levels up.
She can see how well the battle is going against the dragon by feeding Trahearne a steady, even amount of lifeforce and seeing how he regenerates or depletes as the battle goes. She sees he has an advantage over the dragon, as it is not going down nearly as harshly as it did before. But he still needs lifeforce - just not nearly as much as before. She channels mostly into Caithe and Canach, now.
Inside, Canach determines that Marjory is feeding them too much, but rather than send Caithe to tell her to stop, he realizes that, rather than expending mental power to create a whole new copy, they can simply imagine him and Caithe as having necromantic powers, which uses a lot less mental power than creating a whole new copy.
Realizing this, Canach begins giving necromantic powers to everyone who has an outside source. The leap in sylvari becoming substantial is quite noticeable.
Outside, Marjory sees Caithe and Canach using the lifeforce she is feeding them, and determines that a necromancer must be draining them. So she pulls even more fiercely at the jungle around her, funneling it into Caithe and Canach and as much into Trahearne as he needs.
However, the pattern of usage in Caithe and Canach's lifeforce is familiar - they seem to be controlling the lifeforce taken from them, as if they are necromancers themselves. Grinning gleefully, she pours all the lifeforce she can get from the jungle into them.
"Marjory, are you alright?" Braham asks worriedly. "You're kind of glowing."
"It's probably all the lifeforce I'm channeling," Marjory replies absently. "Caithe and Canach are necromancers, feeding other people, I have to keep them full of lifeforce."
Braham and Rytlock looks at each other.
"...You do know how ridiculous that sounds, right?"
"Well, either they're necromancers or they are controlling the person who's draining their lifeforce. Honestly, the former makes more sense. Anything they imagine comes true in the mindscape, apparently, wouldn't be so hard to imagine themselves as necromancers." Marjory pulls more and more lifeforce.
Braham notices something odd, and inspects a leafy vine to make sure. "Hey, the leaves are turning brown, just a bit."
"Well, that is where I'm pulling the lifeforce from," Marjory shrugs. "The jungle dragon is probably running out. Can I use you two as storage containers for lifeforce, for when the dragon runs out and I need to maintain Trahearne's lifeforce?"
"...sure?" Braham shrugs. Rytlock agrees.
Inside, Mordremoth's avatar turns and starts banging on Canach's shield. He's only shielding those he can shield - most of the sylvari are outside of the protective bubble, but killing them just depletes their lifeforce. If the dragon can kill Canach - the only person capable of dying rather than just going insubstantial - the whole system will crash. The dragon also does more focus on breaking Trahearne's connection with Canach, which is a whole lot harder to defend on Trahearne's part.
In between the mindscape and reality, Trahearne's battle with Mordremoth is reaching such a high level of intensity that Trahearne knows he should have lost a long time ago. But his mental fortitude does not seem to be depleteing, on the contrary, he constantly feels energized, even when he should be falling unconscious from mental exertion.
Trahearne does not know about the lifeforce battle going on inside Mordremoth's mind. At least, he kind of doesn't. Being connected so much to Mordremoth - not to mention trying to maintain that link - is very conductive to knowing what is going on in Mordremoth's mind. But the information he receives is second-hand, and tinted with the dragon's view.
The dragon seems to be losing energy much faster than he should have for this level battle, and Trahearne decides it must be the mental battle.
And now the dragon is attacking the connection. If Trahearne couldn't see the battle going on in Mordremoth's mind he would have let the dragon take the connection, but he knows that Canach needs that connection to defeat the dragon.
And then, Trahearne sees something that freezes him. The healthy - Trahearne mentally shakes his head at the use of the word healthy - connection to Nierwenda. Nierwenda submitted to the dragon, and submitted for quite a while, and now she is in the in-between world, like him, doing nothing physically or mentally besides keeping the dragon out. And she is as much on the dragon's side as he is not. Meaning that she got inbetween from being completely on the dragon's side. He reaches out and touches her mind, before recoiling as Mordremoth's mind hammers at that undefended arm like that is what the world depends on. Well, it kind of does, Trahearne tells himself.
But Trahearne sees Nierwenda's consciousness react to it, and reaches out herself. He meets her halfway, careful to keep them both shielded. He tells her what is going on - how the connection is the only thing keeping Canach's organization working properly, but how the dragon wants it gone, and how much he would let it be gone if this didn't depend on it.
Nierwenda understands, and shares her plan with him. Delighted, Trahearne agrees.
Inside the mindscape, Nierwenda convulses for a minute, before looking up, her own sylvari. She tentatively reaches out and touches the pool of sylvari within the Dream. She contacts with it, and she feels the pools collective delight when they realize she is her own now. She joins the entwining of minds and tells Canach what is going on with the connection, and the importance of the connection both to Mordremoth and to their effort.
Mordremoth is still holding her connection to reality, but doesn't seem to notice it at all. Canach updates her completly on what is going on within a few seconds, before carefully passing control of the infrastructure of minds and control over to her, carefully and gradually. When Canach no longer is focal point of the sylvari pool, he leaves the mindscape.
In between, on the Mordremoth vs Trahearne battleground, Trahearne feels the connection holding Canach in the mindscape unravel, and knows Canach no longer needs the connection. He lets Mordremoth take it, and retreats into his own mind.
No longer needing to defend the connection, Trahearne takes the time while Mordremoth is busy ripping the connection out of his mind to build up the rest of his defenses.
By the time Mordremoth realizes that he has no use for this connection, Trahearne's mind is too well-defended to replace the connection.
Outside the mindscape, Canach wakes up and instantly glows eye-searingly bright, flying into the air for how much energy he put into getting to his feet.
Marjory goes white, and instantly diverts the lifeforce flow into Caithe, who also goes over her limit quickly, before she uses it up speedily. Majory draws Canach's lifeforce down a manageable level, and he stops glowing and using so much energy.
Marjory's heart is beating so fast she is surprised she hasn't had a heart attack already.
"That almost killed you! Some warning next time?"
"The sooner that connection stops the better!" Canach counters gesturing at Trahearne. He then proceeds to tell Marjory exactly what that connection is and what it means once Mordremoth is destroyed. "And you do know you're glowing, right?"
"Only reason I'm not dead is because I'm funneling into Caithe and Trahearne. Oh, he stopped declining so quickly. The connection must be gone now."
"Why are all of the leaves yellow?" Canach asks.
"Mordremoth's running out of lifeforce," Braham says, before updating him on what they know is going on while Marjory adjusts the lifeforce going to Trahearne.
"Hey, Caithe can't handle this much lifeforce, even using it up. She's not a natural necromancer, she just can't handle it."
"I can go back into the mindscape without using the connection," Canach tells them, before entering through the Dream.
Marjory quickly funnels the extra lifeforce through Canach again.
Inside, Canach joins the pool and Nierwenda transferrs control again. It's just not safe to have the focal point be somebody whose connection is being held by Mordremoth. Nierwenda leaves the mindscape.
Outside, Nierwenda wakes up.
Rytlock and Braham instantly face her with their weapons, having been updated previously on Nierwenda's submission to the dragon. Marjory prepares to overload her with lifeforce, such a method being her only weapon at the moment.
Nierwenda holds up her hands, palm outward, showing she is not holding any weapons. "I'm fine. I fought him off," she says tiredly. Marjory had not been feeding her lifeforce while she was in control of the sylvari pool.
"She did," Trahearne confirms suddenly, having built up his defenses sufficiently to be able to interact outside again. "It's how I was able to break the connection to Mordremoth without the whole lifeforce battle being ripped apart. I think I'll join that battle." Trahearne and Nierwenda promptly enter the mindscape via the Dream.
Inside, when Trahearne joins the pool, morale is quite increased.
But Mordremoth, no longer needing to focus on Trahearne - the connection means nothing, now, and he has the best mind-defense of all the sylvari, especially in that pool, Mordremoth focuses on the focal point of the pool within the Dream - Canach. He bangs on the shield that Canach is under, but since it is not Canach maintaining the shield, it simply flickers and depletes lifeforce as the shield control is handed off among other sylvari, purposely not Canach.
And everybody, realizing Trahearne's mental fortitude (he did hold off the dragon's entire mind for a long time, and is really good at it now) passes control to him, but pretending that Canach is still in control to deceive Mordremoth. In reality, Trahearne is on the other side of the mindscape, hidden amongst all the other sylvari. And he's also stealing lifeforce from Mordremoth, and he is pulling more than any other necromancer out there, funneling into the rest of the sylvari who aren't substantial yet.
Sylvari who aren't necromancers are letting their mental space be used for more mentally-generated necromancers.
Trahearne suggests that the pool have no focal point - it doesn't need one, just a pool of sylvari, and if somebody has an idea they can take control for a while. The whole idea of a focal point is outdated anyway.
This suggestion is implemented, but to keep Mordremoth on his toes, the shield is passed around for a while before being disabled. Nobody within the mindscape is mortal - anybody who dies just goes insubstantial until they can be given enough lifeforce again.
Outside, Mordremoth, no longer able to focus on a specific sylvari, decides to replenish his lifeforce. So he focuses on outside sylvari necromancers, piling his power into them. And nobody notices, because he does it all at once. And then, that sylvari wakes up and pulls lifeforce from the necromancer that had been maintaining his connection and giving it back to Mordremoth. After killing all the non-sylvari around that sylvari by depleteing their lifeforce, he relinquished control and found another sylvari. In this way he regained a lot of lifeforce, decimating the Pact in the process.
Most sylvari with a non-sylvari necromancer companion had attracted quite a crowd to donate lifeforce, and so the sylvari necromancers he simply woke up and stole all the lifeforce back, decimating the camp that sylvari was in, before moving to the next one, and the next.
In this way, most, if not all, of the Pact died due to loss of lifeforce. And it happened so quickly, too, that by the time the first sylvari to be used in this way got back to the mindscape to report it, it was over, and the Pact was gone but for sylvari.
And now Mordremoth is taking the sylvari necromancers and is going about wiping out the rest of the sylvari.
Coming to a decision inside the mindscape, the Dream-pool of sylvari takes lifeforce out of the sylvari necromancers, but only to the point of unconsciousness. The Dream-pool is not much affected, but the draw on Mordremoth's lifeforce is. Sylvari are instructed to wake up and get to where Marjory is, along with any non-sylvari necromancers that escaped Mordremoth's purge.
Outside, sylvari wake up and go to Marjory - the route is easy with Mordremoth focusing on other things - before telling her about the situation and reentering the mindscape.
Marjory just pulls more and more, aided by the non-sylvari necromancers as they arrive. Marjory is pulling lifeforce so much she is glowing, as are the rest of the necromancers, all funneling into the unconscious sylvari focusing on the mindscape.
The leaves turn from yellow to brown, and then the yellow to brown change starts taking effect in the branches and vines and everything, until they are no longer standing in a lush, green jungle, but a brown, wintery-seeming desolation.
Braham and Rytlock don't know what to do - they aren't necromancers or sylvari. Marjory puts them on escort duty, meaning they go out and find more necromancers or sylvari and make sure they get to the rest of them safely.
Inside the mindscape, the lifeforce draw is taking it's toll. Mordremoth's avatar is stumbling around wearily, and the sea of sylvari with imagined necromantic powers is giving the avatar a wide berth, but drawing greedily on the lifeforce just the same.
The exponential curve of sylvari becoming substantial, being given necromantic powers, drawing lifeforce and helping more sylvari become substantial just keeps going, and going, and going.
Until Mordremoth's avatar faints. All the sylvari necromancers - especially the natural ones, and the mentally-generated - overload themselves, picking a target and delegating them the task of choosing who to make substantial so they can focus on channeling.
And then Mordremoth's avatar flickers out, and then the mindscape vanishes.
Outside the now non-existent mindscape, those who aren't naturals lose their necromantic abilities. The mindscape is non-existent, and sylvari all over Tyria wake up and explain to their friends what just happened.
The record is set for how fast news spread. Sylvari mesmers attract a lot of notice to replay what happened within the mindscape as an illusion, and soon everybody knows exactly what happened, in a way that did more than words, although words were needed to explain lifeforce.
"Who knew lifeforce was so important?" one person asks, laughing.
The most important thing is the sylvari learning about uniting within the Dream to work together.
A lot of enemies reconcile with each other, as sharing consciousnesses within the Dream and mindscape helps them understand the other side of the story.
The universal sylvari-sharing-consciousness in the desperate try for survival brought a lot of unity to the sylvari race - even Nightmare Courtiers had been involved in it, and everybody understood the other's ideas.
The Nightmare Court becomes a faction of sylvari who prefer not to follow the tenets of Ventari's Tablet, but they no longer seek out to kill and torture other sylvari.
Even Soundless had felt the call of Dream, however much they tried to distance themselves. They followed the call just a bit, but were not involved in the consciousness-sharing.
The exponential growth of the Dream-pool meant that, although there was no shortage of funneling lifeforce, all sylvari did participate in it.
Some sylvari described the experience as of having gone through the Dream all over again, only with all the sylvari contributing memories. The ocean of memories that makes up the Dream was doubled many times over.
And everybody knows what would have happened if Trahearne's connection - the connection keeping Canach in the mindscape - had not been neutralized, and everybody is glad that Nierwenda was able to take control and allow Canach to leave the mindscape, allowing Trahearne to let the dragon take his connection back.
And nobody faults Nierwenda for turning to Mordremoth temporarily, especially when everybody had seen the memory in the Dream-pool. In fact, if she hadn't turned, some theorized, the connection might never have been neutralized, and everybody knows what would have happened then.
The one downside is Mordremoth's last counterattack against the Pact - there are very few non-sylvari left within the Pact, and the Pact is greatly decimated. At least the parts of it within the Maguuma.
Some necromancers try to make them live again by giving them a lot of lifeforce, but it doesn't work. Nierwenda tries - she's been known to take unconscious and presumed dead people and revive them again (meaning they can't have been dead yet) - but it doesn't work.
This loss of life within the Pact is devastating and morale-crushing, and some turn against the sylvari who did it, as a result, but most of Tyria, having seen the illusions of memories replayed, realizes it was purely sylvari work that ended Mordremoth.
Nierwenda laughs. "Canach, remember right after we killed Faolain, you said 'the world needs to see a sylvari exact vengeance'?"
Everyone who had been there for that laughs.
"Indeed. Who knew that I had a gift for telling the future," Canach replies dryly.
"Did you just tell a joke, Canach?" somebody asks, and the remarkable news that Canach told a joke spreads, causing anyone who knows Canach to stare, before finding a mesmer to replay the memory.
Author's Notes:
NO! I had this remarkable dream (lowercase d) about what if Nierwenda turned to Mordremoth and the havoc that would wreak, but then so many things went wrong!
First, I had a nightmare (lowercase n) of a time getting Nierwenda to turn to Mordremoth in the first place, and
Second, I was going to have Canach and Braham die (evil, yes I know, but no more than having the Commander turn) and then Nierwenda and Mordremoth take over the world together (or something like that) and I had trouble doing that, and it ALMOST WORKED, until
Third, I enlisted the ENTIRE SYLVARI RACE to come and help them! You can't just have Mordrmemoth not die at that point, now can you? And
Fourth, I was going to make this a multi-chapter story, spinning out Nierwenda and Mordremoth taking over the world, but then it all happened in a single chapter!
So my story entirely did not go as planned! And if you ask my family, they'll tell you how much I ranted over this story not going as planned.
But hey! Maybe Anet will put this as the alternate ending to HoT! It is much more climactic and tense than the original version, and Trahearne doesn't die! Although, it might break the rules of mindscapes and lifeforce a bit much... but I definitely needed to have Mordremoth have A TON of lifeforce because he's an ELDER DRAGON for goodness sake.
And now my rambling is over, and I must say, I really, really, like this chapter, much as it contradicted my dreams. I'll just have to go with the other version I thought up, which was having Mordremth turn Nierwenda in her Dream. Which, tbh, I have no idea how that would work.
Anyway! The hardest part of this was Nierwenda having a stronger mind than my story-writing could overcome for a while. (I consider it properly symbolic that she only completely got away from Mordremoth by talking to Trahearne.)