Good Before Friday Thursday.
Anyone know of TVTropes? Well, I just found this story as a fanfic example of a sociopathethic hero, and I had to say that reading it was hilarious. After that, I skimmed through a few other pages and found it under AnyoneCanDie as well. If anyone ever notices more mentionings of it on other pages, please do pm me the topic, because if they are anything like those two, then I would love to read them.
...Anyway, I think that you will enjoy this one, so go ahead and read it!
Through shadow
Loivissa POV(a month later)
He had been in Teirm for an entire week now, and His presence greatly unnerved Loivissa, who had since learned that a part of her duty as an emissary for the dragon riders consisted of making sure that He was protected and accounted for at all times.
So far, He had spent the week simply touring the city and enjoying banquets with the lord of Teirm. The commoners had become ecstatic upon learning of His presence in the city, and every time that He went out, a crowd would soon form, so that they could catch even just a glimpse of the man behind the legend.
They had not been disappointed, as He had not only strolled around with his real eyes clearly visible, but had also donned some new suit of armour that Loivissa had never seen before. It looked to be of a design that matched the one that He had once given her, with its steel plate that looked like it had been moulded directly upon His body and shone like it had been made from pure silver.
The strange insignia that He had once adopted as His own was engraved upon His chest, and from His shoulders, a dark blue cape with silver embroidery on it hung. A new, different, sword hung from His side, and from the looks of the ebony and ivory encrusted sheath, it sort of resembled a scimitar, and yet, it had distinct differences.
The crossguard of the sword resembled a wolf's head, with emeralds imbedded in it as its eyes and steel jaws with steel teeth going up along the early length of the blade, like the wolf was spitting out the blade itself from its maw.
The crowd had loved it all; His attire, His mystique, His aura of sheer power and confidence, and He had soaked up the attention like a bottomless well. What Loivissa had learned from this display was that this was not the same man that she had once known.
She had always thought that if she was to ever see Him again, then He would be like she remembered Him, with His old armour and a reforged version of His old sword at His back. This person had given up all of that, and who knew how much else?
"Are you doing okay, Shadeslayer?", Lifaen asked from beside her, as they stood as the sole occupants of the room that would play host to the actual meeting in less than an hour.
"Yeah, it is just; am I a bad person for expecting to see Him as only a shell of His former self?" , Loivissa questioned. Lifaen was among the few who knew what had actually happened back then, as she had had to make a detailed description of her journey to the dragon rider council, with him there as well, upon her return to Alagaësia.
"No, you are not", Lifaen assured her, "but I need to know whether your mind is here or somewhere else".
"It is here, sir", Loivissa confirmed with determination, "nothing will harm Him and He will not harm anyone else while I am still able to fight".
"It is good to know", Lifaen chuckled at her response, "though I would not worry about Mercury harming anyone if I were you. He is here with only a few men to discuss a diplomatic treaty, and I doubt that causing an international incident will help get it through".
"But He has not even told us what He wants yet!", Loivissa continued.
"Shadeslayer, if you cannot control your temper, then I will have to ask you to leave before the delegates arrive. They may have been the ones that requested that you specifically was to be here, as you have had far more experience with dealing with him than anyone else, but it will ultimately be I that decide whether you are here or not", Lifaen admonished her sternly.
"Yes…sir, it will not happen again", Loivissa conceded.
Our leader is right, Adûn privately agreed with Lifaen, the delegates are counting on you to help them through these negotiations, so you have to be calm and collected. You have let him dominate your mind for too long now, and that has to stop.
I know, but it is hard to do as you ask, Loivissa answered tiredly.
Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, Adûn commented wisely, before Mercury's stay here ends, I want you to have worked things over with him. One way or the other, you have to move on from what happened.
"The delegates are arriving", Lifaen informed her quietly.
True enough, not long after, the different delegates and their entourages from the various races of Alagaësia started trickling in to take their places around the oval table that had a seat reserved for Him at one of its ends.
Lord Torbin of Gilead, his aide and his two personal mage guards were there to represent the interests of the Empire. From the dwarves came the clanchief of Dûrgrimst Ingeitum, Hrothgar the third, along with five of his own guards, of which Loivissa knew that at least three were mages as well. The urgals simply sent a shaman from the Bolvek tribe as their representative, while the elves also simply used Vanir, their usual emissary, as their representative. The werecats had not sent a representative, and considering that He had apparently only requested to deal with the actual functioning nations of Alagaësia, no one had bothered to try very hard to add them to the meeting.
After a little while had passed and all of the delegations had taken their seats around the oval table, which just so happened to all be located around the other end of the table from where His seat had been reserved, so as to give the impression that they were one united front against the outsider, He and His small following decided to finally show.
He was the first to enter, now dressed in a far simpler blue tunic that had a belt with a silver clasp and which was made from a type of leather that Loivissa did not recognize, black leather pants and the golden signet ring with its 80 extraordinarily tiny sapphires spread out among six onyx circles that had as their centre, a mixed clump of only slightly larger rubies and grey moonstones.
He cast one look around the table at the representatives and their guards and advisors, before He smirked slightly and proceeded to push through the oak double doors. Padding behind Him in His shadow was that giant black cat-thing that always seemed to follow Him around wherever He went.
It always unnerved Loivissa to see it, as she could clearly and carefully see how this was not a creature that had been meant to be a pet. No, it was meant to kill, to hunt and to ambush its prey in the darkness.
"That beast is not participating in this meeting!", one of Lord Torbin's guards exclaimed as he pointed his finger in the cat's direction.
The huge black cat looked up at the guard like it understood what was being said, as it padded up in front of its master and barred its long sharp teeth as it tensed and readied itself to pounce upon anyone that dared to come nearer its master.
Swords were already halfway drawn when His calm but demanding voice sounded, "Mushu, calm".
The black cat, Mushu, growled one last time at the ones that had almost drawn their swords already, before its shoulders relaxed and it turned around to have its ears scratched momentarily by its master's hand, before it padded back towards the double oak doors to stay at the side of the third previously unnoticed person of His entourage.
She was a dökkálfar, but she was not as young as Naina had been when Loivissa had known her, though there seemed to be some semblance between this one and Naina. She was clad in green silken clothes that fitted her body quite tightly, her silver hair was braided in one long braid that hung down her right shoulder and in her hands, there was a leather inbound folder.
As Mushu rubbed its head against her thigh affectionately and with a purr, under the watchful eyes of all of the Alagaësian delegations, He once again commanded everyone's attention upon Himself with nothing more than a simple clearing of His throat.
"Mushu stays", He informed them, not asked.
"How do you expect us to feel safe if you are keeping a dangerous beast with you?", one of the delegates asked.
"Mushu will not attack unless I, or my aide de camp, have been attacked first", He told them calmly, before he let his gaze run across the different personal guards and said, "if you expect me to ask my pet to wait outside, then I expect yours to do the same".
A great deal of grumbling broke out at that, where most of the representatives looked from Him, to their own guards, then to Loivissa and Lifaen, before their gazes returned to Him once again. Loivissa knew that this would be the first battle to be fought in the meeting to come, and it would determine how it went from there on.
Lord Torbin cast a questioning look towards where Loivissa was standing, asking her specifically for her input on this matter. She nodded almost imperceptibly in response. The cat was far from the most dangerous thing in this room, so whether it stayed or not would hardly matter if the other guards were allowed to stay as well.
"I vote that it can stay if we have your assurance that it will not interfere", Lord Torbin said cautiously, which was one by one followed by the other representatives until all were in agreement.
"Excellent, now that we have that detail out of the way, I would like to confirm that each of you have been given permission by your respective monarchs to conduct negotiations in their stead, now that they apparently had more important things to spend their time on", He asked as He seated Himself at the end of the table.
"Aye, we have", the dwarven representative said.
"Good, then assuming that everyone is present, I request that this room is to be sealed from any magical or non-magical eavesdropping", He laid out his demands.
"Why should we oblige you on that?", one of the representatives asked.
"Are there anyone outside of this room that is expected to participate in the meeting?", He asked calmly, but with a hint of steel in His voice.
"No", Vanir answered carefully.
"Then I fail to see how my request should be cause for concern", He elaborated, as if talking to a child, "this is not me saying that no communication can occur with the outside world during these talks, as messengers will of course be allowed to go in and out as they are ordered, and you can all ask for recess to discuss matters with your respective monarchs. All I ask is that I am allowed to see and hear the people that I am having a discussion with. Surely, none of you can find fault in that".
"I have one", Lifaen surprised everyone by saying, "I request that an exception will be made to allow us to communicate with our other halves".
"No", He denied it outright, "find a room that fits the dragons or do not involve them".
"They are as much a part of us as any of your limbs are to you!", Loivissa growled from where she stood.
He turned to look at her with a stern expression, completely without any compassion or warmth in it, as He slowly and measuredly said, "I am not dealing with the dragon rider order. The only reason for your presence here is that I gave in to the actual delegations' request to have you present".
"And you agreed to that arrangement", Vanir commented, "what would the harm be in allowing the riders to talk with their dragons?"
"It opens up the possibility of the riders talking with others outside of this room as well", He responded, "which is why I would have no trouble with it if the dragons were inside the room as well, besides, it is not even them that will be deciding on anything during these talks, unless I am mistaken in believing that all of the Alagaësian nations have not yet relinquished their sovereignty to the dragon rider order?"
"We have not", Lord Torbin said firmly, "but we were the ones to invite the riders to participate in these meetings".
"The dragon rider order have been a part of Alagaësia since time immemorial", Vanir butted in, "they have as much say in what we decide as the other nations have".
"I disagree", Hrothgar the third, the dwarven representative objected, "the riders should not be allowed to dictate our policies".
Soon, all of the Alagaësian delegates were bickering amongst themselves about old trifles and matters that should not be discussed when there was still an outside party present. Lifaen tried only once to calm them down and get them back on track, but his attempt to do so only resulted in another round of arguments from the dwarves that the riders should stay out of this.
Sil and I have come to an agreement and we are willing to abide by his request, Adûn stated privately to Loivissa.
But we will lose ground already if we give in to His demands so early in, Loivissa argued.
You will lose more if you allow the delegates to fracture more than they already have, Adûn argued wisely, Mercury's sense of politics has certainly not dulled since we last saw him. Taking a strong unified front and splitting it up into weaker divided factions with only a few simple demands and questions. You will have to be careful from now on.
"The dragon riders agree to the terms", Loivissa's clear voice cut through the noise of the bickering delegates.
"Are you sure about this? Cutting a rider off from its other half…", Vanir asked questioningly.
"Yes, we do this of our own free will, so no hard feelings should be allowed to linger because of it", Lifaen supported her statement, obviously having been informed by Sil as well.
"Then I suppose that we agree as well", the urgal shaman said.
Loivissa looked towards His end, where she met His gaze, before He nodded almost imperceptibly towards her. It was an acknowledgement of knowing what had happened and a reminder that He had achieved everything that He had set out to and more, as the damage to the Alagaësian delegates' unity had already been done. The wards were raised soon after by both Loivissa and Lifaen, before they were then checked after by His aide de camp, Ilumëo, as Loivissa had learned her name to be.
"Then the meeting can finally be underway", He said with a sigh, "firstly, let me introduce myself and those that I represent. I am Lord Mercury of House Iridium, lord commander of the Silver Wave Alliance's forces, archduke of The Northern Wastes, the last king of Damocles and the spokesperson chosen to deliver and negotiate the Alliance's offers to the Alagaësian people".
Well, He certainly had gained a few titles since the last time that Loivissa had met him, though she was a little unsure of what he meant by 'the last king of Damocles'.
"The Silver Wave Alliance is a nation that has many of the world's former nations as its members", He continued without pause, "we provide security for our members, both on sea and land, settle disputes and grievances before they ever reach the possibility of war and provide an exchange of innovations, learning and philosophies from all across our members. And, to get to the point of my being here, we would like for the nations of Alagaësia to join our Alliance".
"What exactly would joining your 'Alliance' mean for us and our independence?", Hrothgar asked suspicious.
"If you join, you would be joining as individual nations", He stated, "you would lose most of your sovereignty, but your government would largely remain the same as it has until now, that is, if you should still wish for it to remain so, though you would be required to issue elections amongst your individual populations at least once every decade to select representatives, the amount of which would be determined by your population's size, who would represent your province within the Tribunal, which is the Alliance's functioning head that decrees the laws regarding the entire Alliance, settles disputes and many other things.
By joining voluntarily, the tax rate that is mandatory for all members would be decreased by 20% upon your induction, after which it will slowly increase over the next three decades, until it has reached the then present Alliance standards. Further minor effects are also present and can be further detailed upon in a comprehensive document that I can have delivered to each of you by the end of the day".
"You are proposing that we freely give away virtually all of our sovereignty in exchange for promises of trade, security, a momentary decrease in extra taxes and an exchange of ideas?", Lord Torbin asked carefully.
"The tax rate would remain largely the same as current levels within the Empire", He commented, "the abolishment of all but a few provincial security forces should largely cover the extra expense".
"How about the elven nation? The elves have never had the same tax system as the other races", Vanir interjected.
"I will not dictate how you administrate your province, only that you meet the agreed upon Alliance requirements", He answered.
"Then the elves will never be a part of it", Vanir decided.
"Neither will the dwarves", Hrothgar added shortly after, which soon set in motion a wave of similar decisions amongst the other races.
"And you are completely sure that there is nothing that I can do or say to change your mind?", He asked softly.
"We are", Lord Torbin confirmed.
"Then it is good that I came prepared for an eventuality such as this", He said and snapped his fingers, which made Loivissa tense and grip her sword in preparation for a surprise attack, before Ilumëo calmly walked forward and pulled out some documents from her folder, which she passed along to the other delegates, before He continued, "what you have before you is the raw drafts of trade agreements between the Silver Wave Alliance and each of your individual nations, though they are of course only the first raw drafts, so there should be plenty of room for changes. It is the Tribunal's hope that if you were to decline our initial offer, another agreement could be established to provide better relations between our nations and eventually, perhaps you would change your mind about joining".
Loivissa breathed a sigh of relief when nothing else happened. It seemed that perhaps, He had finally been leashed by someone decent that knew how to control Him. The old Him certainly would not have come all this way in the hopes of acquiring all of Alagaësia and then settle for returning with simple trade agreements, but as the day wore on and the discussions continued in relative good spirits, she realized that He might not have a choice in the matter.
They continued with negotiating the trade agreements for another five days after that, and though they only made little progress each day, it was still better than none at all. The progress was impeded by the Alliance having to establish individual treaties with each of the nations, but that did not mean that the nations did not have inputs and demands on the treaties of each other, which made it impossible to concentrate on single treaties, as there was almost always being made changes to the others as well whenever something was decided upon in one treaty.
Loivissa had not had the private discussion with Him that Adûn kept bugging her about. He had been busy during the days with the negotiations and probably tired in the nights afterwards. She had had to discuss something with her parents. It had been such a long time since she and Adûn had flown together properly. It had been raining; clearly a sign that that day was not a good day to approach Him about it.
They were all weak excuses, if some of them even got to be called that much.
You have to talk to him today, Adûn admonished her right before she was about to enter the meeting room again, who knows how much longer the negotiations will last before they are signed and he leaves for good? I will not have you spend the next century wondering what could have happened.
I know, Loivissa admitted, I promise that I will corner Him after today and do as you ask, but for now, I am needed in there.
Go, I will be waiting out here, as usual, the last bit was said with just a tint of resentment in his voice.
And with that, Loivissa went inside to resume the boring assignment of standing guard as the negotiations kept on going as they had for the past five days. The only noteworthy happening was that sometime during the meeting, Ilumëo went outside for a bit, though she came back in a short while after.
When she entered the room again, Loivissa noted with the interest that was born out of utter boredom that she went straight up to Him and whispered something in His ear, instead of retaking her seat as she had done the previous times this had happened.
He nodded at whatever she had said, before He suddenly rose from his seat and in a calm yet slightly smug voice, He said, "lords, ladies and variables, I can hereby inform you that around noon on this day, the dragon rider city of Estildirin fell to my Alliance forces".
Silence, complete and utter silence was the response to that, as everyone gaped at the statement in unison.
Loivissa barely had time to comprehend the words before the representatives all rose from their seats and violently demanded to know what the meaning of such insolent slander was, along with numerous other foul words that Loivissa did not wish to repeat.
"Furthermore", He continued as if there had been no interruptions, "I can inform you that the imperial cities of Teirm, Kuasta and Narda have also been subdued by my forces, which are continuing to flood into the cities even as we speak".
"Insolent worm, you will never get away with this!", Lord Torbin almost frothed, "guards, bring him to me in chains!"
All of the delegations and their guards drew swords, including Loivissa and Lifaen, but just as they took the first step towards Him, He simply raised His right hand with the palm facing them and said, "I am afraid that I cannot allow that to happen", before His eyes glowed with a silver glow.
Almost immediately, Loivissa felt how a magical force restricted her movements, and from her peripheral vision, she noticed that no one had moved after that first step, so she guessed that the magic affected them as well. Obviously, no one had considered to ward against something like that when you were not even going into battle.
"It is a mistake on your part to think that you can measure up to the riders", Lifaen spat, "ease our bonds!"
Loivissa and all of the other mages in the room copied his incantation to join forces in breaking the spell that bound them, creating a massive combined pool of energy, which, combined with Loivissa's and Lifaen's stores in their rider swords, would suffer no rival.
For almost five minutes, they continued to pour energy into the spell without it taking any effect whatsoever, and already, the human mages had had to give up. The dwarven mages were the next ones to go, before the urgal shaman and finally even Vanir succumbed as well.
Loivissa could not fathom how He could have so much energy as to match their combined efforts without even looking like He was exerting Himself at all. It was not possible that they could be defeated so easily, and yet He still showed no signs of exertion as Lifaen finally let go of his spell as well.
"No, I will not give up!", Loivissa shouted, though her personal stores were nearing dangerous levels, "Release my bonds!"
For a brief moment, Loivissa thought that she saw surprise flicker in His eyes as she uttered her ultimatum, which would either release her or kill her, or both, but as suddenly as the energy started to surge from her system at an alarming rate, He clenched his outstretched hand and she could feel the spell lifting as everyone but Him collapsed upon the floor from exertion.
It was at this moment that the non-mage guards that had not participated in the earlier trial of strength, rushed forward to dispose of the threat. They did not get far, as their previous wards against magic had now been lifted due to their casters having fainted, so after only three small steps, all of them were lifted up into the air by another wordless spell, and with a flick of His wrist, they were thrown sideways into the wall like they were nothing more than dolls.
The double oak doors burst open, but instead of seeing the citadel guards storming inside, Loivissa only saw four scruffy looking men with Teirm city guard uniforms on, which had a red x painted over the Teirm crest, and lying in the hall in a pool of their own blood were the citadel guards that had been guarding the room until now.
The sounds of dragons wailing and screams could be heard, now that the wards sealing the room from the outside world had been broken.
"The wall shook, so we came at once", one of the scruffy men told Him with what Loivissa recognized as an actual Teirm accent.
"Everything is under control here, return to your assignments", He ordered them, before He turned to the unmoving representatives that had neither participated in the battle of magic or the attempted charge, and said, "I am sorry that it had to come to this, but you left me with no choice when you refused my offer to join of your own free will. Now, watch as I take your lands from you by force".
"I will never allow you to win", Loivissa snarled and since she knew that for some reason, she was no match for Him in pure strength, she initiated a mental combat instead.
To her surprise and alarm, there were no barriers around His mind, only what looked like a wall with a clear and unobstructed entrance in it. She did not like how much it seemed like a trap, but her previous words left her with no choice but to at least try to put a stop to this menace, so she continued further inside.
His mind was unlike any that she had ever encountered before, and so very different from the last time that she had been inside of it, as it offered no resistance to her intrusion. In fact, it seemed more like the actual structure of a building than a layout of a mind, as the 'walls' around her consisted of fragmented pieces of memories and thoughts that were seemingly incoherently put together in a mishmash of everything.
As she ventured further inside, she encountered many crossroads where she either had to go left, right, up or down, or sometimes an entirely different direction that made no sense in the physical world, and it did not take long before Loivissa realized that the conscious part of her mind that she had sent forward in an attack, was now completely and utterly lost within this maze of impossible directions.
Anger turned to caution, which then turned to confusion and finally to fear as she struggled to find her way out again, but it was to no avail, as the maze also seemed to change the very build of its walls every so often, and even if she tried to break through the walls, more would simply be there and the broken ones would close in upon themselves again.
She had heard about people getting lost within someone else's mind, but never before had she truly understood what they had meant by it, not until now. Not until she herself had lost her way back. Feeling shameful and sorry for herself for having failed Alagaësia once again, for once again not being strong enough to win on her own and needing a knight in shining armour to come in and rescue her, Loivissa stopped trying to get out altogether and let her conscious metaphorically lay down and cry where she was.
"Sleep", a powerful voice echoed within this realm, or perhaps it was a sensation from her own body? She did not know, and neither did she care at the moment as her eyes drifted shut without her consent.
The last thing that she experienced within the maze was that of a multi-coloured humanoid being that was dressed in robes and which was standing over the form of her conscious, before it began to lift her up in its arms and carry her somewhere that she did not know where was.
...and there we finally have it. The plot has been set, the dices cast and Mercury has taken the world by storm.
And now that that cat is finally out of the bag, I can finally release a sidestory that I have worked on for some time, but which might have spoiled this moment for me(and you). It will be called Two Sides, and it will be released every Sideshow Saturday(do not make fun of it if you are called Bart).
Until this Saturday(or Monday, if you do not care to read that).