Chapter 8 - Luna's Chosen
I ran as fast as my legs would take me back to Doctor Basha's house, despite Godchaser's protests. When I arrived, I was stunned to find the business abandoned, probably for many years. I even woke some of the neighbors and demanded to see the doctor, but no one seemed to know who he was.
Although Doctor Basha had been very kind to me, his disappearance reminded me all too clearly of Himitsu's, and I shuddered to think what sort of malevolent plots he might have been hiding behind his little smile. Was I the only person in Creation capable of remembering a Sidereal when I encountered one? I was beginning to believe that was the case.
Still unable to access most of her records, all that Godchaser could tell me was that Doctor Basha was something called a "Chosen of Serenity" and that she had not known for certain until he used a Charm in her presence. Despite how the innocuous the name sounded, such Sidereals were not necessarily any nicer than the sort I'd already encountered. In a futile attempt to calm me down, Godchaser also emphasized that not all Sidereals were necessarily bad. They were like bureaucrats, she explained, more or less corrupt because that was the nature of their profession... but some of them did truly believe in helping people.
One thing was obvious, however. I had no choice but to move on.
With Godchaser's somewhat incoherent directions and a good amount of food and supplies, I felt confident enough to undertake the last leg of my long journey. Pressed on by my desire to fix my companion once and for all and my promise to Doctor Basha, even if he was a Sidereal... I walked south for almost a whole day at a madman's pace, not bothering to stop for water or meals.
Just as the sun was setting and I was preparing make camp I heard the sound of people approaching. Not an army, thankfully, but definitely more than a dozen men. Before I could find somewhere out of sight to hide, a hand seized the hood of my cloak and lifted me clear off of my feet.
"Put me down!" I ordered, kicking air.
Whoever had seized me did not oblige, but turned me very slowly to face him. My captor was a scarred Southern thug dressed in blue lamellar, almost twice as tall as I was.
"Put him down!" A familiar voice ordered.
The thug set me on my feet as his companions, a large pack of beastman and mortals emerged from the forest.
Their leader, the one who had spoken on my behalf, was an enormous silver lion-man with striking blue eyes. Strange, swirling tattoos covered his whole body and he wore no clothing at all, save for a silver bracelet of a peculiar geometric design that immediately made me think of Godchaser. I knew I'd touched that bracelet before, and I felt a kinship with its bearer. The lion-man stared down at me with a troubling expression on his face. He motioned for his followers to give the two of us space and set his enormous paw on my shoulder. I didn't pull away.
"Hello, stranger." He said in perfect Old Realm, his bass voice touched with something like a purr. Despite the language he spoke in, I wasn't sure that he knew I understood him... and so I decided to give nothing away.
"What brings you down this road?" He pressed, switching to Rivertongue.
"My own business." I replied in the same. "Kindly let me pass."
"It is growing dark." The lion-man argued.
"I don't care." I replied. "I'm almost home."
"There is no village for many miles." He informed me.
"I'm on the way to my estate." I lied, choosing a word that sounded less incriminating than "manse".
"Is over there the "estate" that you speak of?" He smiled slightly, gesturing in the direction of my pack and the pile of wood I'd gathered to make a fire. "Perhaps your formidable castle might shelter my great army for the night?" He gestured to his followers, which numbered seven lion men and a dozen unsavory-looking mortals. Although the big Southerner who had grabbed me looked very much like an Imperial soldier, the rest were dressed in a combination of old leather and patched southern silks. I suspected they were probably bandits.
They all laughed.
As I saw it, I didn't have the option to refuse hospitality. In all fairness, I didn't own the woods I'd taken shelter in any more than I owned the road or the river that ran alongside it. The bandits immediately set about pitching their camp on top of mine and building my little campfire into a beacon of flame that could doubtless be seen for miles. Not that I worried too much.
Generally speaking, the armies of the Realm did not tolerate armed groups tramping about the countryside. If any patrol did come upon us, I did not doubt that my "guests" would be in as much trouble as I was, if not more. Although I hadn't seen them, I had heard that some of the Ravenous Winds had arrived from the Blessed Isle and were scouring the area for fae. I didn't want to take the chance that a member of that notorious Wyld Hunt – Sam, perhaps... might recognize me.
"So, Lord Silvermane... I take it we're not robbing this lost little noble?" One of the men asked.
Silvermane. The name suited him. I was certain I'd heard it before.
"No. " Silvermane replied. "On the contrary. He is now under our protection."
"What? Why?" The Southerner demanded.
"I don't need your protection!" I retorted.
"You do." Silvermane replied with certainty, not raising his voice even as I snapped at him. "More than you realize, Lawgiver!"
I froze as he spoke that sobriquet. All of Silvermane's men watched me in disbelief, their eyes briefly darting back to their leader as if they expected one of us would say something very important. I couldn't find the words myself. I only stared at Silvermane.
He already knew that I was a Solar? But I'd done nothing at all to incriminate myself!
A faint chill rippled down my spine as our eyes met. Once again, the leader of the bandits seemed familiar to me. Though he'd joked about spending the night at my make-believe "estate", Silvermane's strange poise and the word that he'd just spoken made one thing very clear.
I was in charge. Silvermane would do whatever I wanted. He'd even let me continue unmolested if I demanded his cooperation, but he wouldn't like it. He wanted to stay as close to me as possible. I didn't know how I knew all of that, but I knew it just the same.
"Where are you really headed?" Silvermane pressed.
"I'm going to my manse for supplies. I'm trying to stop the plague from spreading in Nexus." I explained, deciding not to complicate things with further lies.
"Feh! That is beneath you!" The Southerner scoffed. He watched me very strangely, something in his eyes that seemed to suggest he would prefer to be on his knees in my presence.
"Helping people is beneath me?" I glared at him. "Doctor Basha..."
"Doctor Basha?" Silvermane snarled, not allowing me to finish. "You're working for that charlatan? He's a ruthless zealot! He'll kill you with no remorse at all! He used to be an Immaculate monk!" He finished, as if that were the most damning accusation he could imagine. Even knowing that Doctor Basha was a Sidereal and probably not really my friend at all, I felt compelled to defend him.
"I used to be an Immaculate monk!" I snapped. Frustrated as I was at the predicament that I'd found myself in, I had learned that if I wanted room to breathe, all I had to do was flare my Caste Mark. With the sun sitting on the horizon line nearing its set, I couldn't have painted a more powerfully effective picture.
The bandits quickly backed away from me, murmuring to one another in disbelief, but Silvermane stepped forward. He put his hand on my shoulder for the second time and met my gaze without hesitation. He was so calm that I almost relaxed myself.
Almost.
"My apologies. I think we started off badly. What is your name?" He asked.
"Veritas." I replied with a heavy sigh. "Veritas Ilumio."
"Well, I am called Silvermane. This is my lieutenant, Six Claws." He gestured to the Southerner, who demonstrated the source of his peculiar name by holding up his arm which was deeply scarred. "We represent The Sun-King Seneschals and we mean you no harm. Will you stay the night with us?" Silvermane pressed. "In the morning, we can escort you to your manse."
"I don't need an escort!" I argued. "I'm packing up and I'm leaving now!"
"As you wish." Silvermane nodded and stepped aside, motioning for all of his followers to keep out of my way. I furiously stuffed my pack, throwing items everywhere and then stopped as I saw I had ripped a hole in my bag of rice and poured its contents all over the ground.
"Why do you want to help me? I asked slowly.
"Why do you want to help the people of Nexus?" Silvermane retorted.
"Because it's the right thing to do." I replied.
"Yes." Silvermane nodded. "So it is. And the one you know as "Doctor Basha" is a good man. He is always the first to come forward when people are suffering. He has great compassion, which may redeem him in spite of all the lying and manipulating that he does."
"If you thought that from the beginning, then why did you try to start a fight with me?" I demanded. I didn't say the word "Sidereal". Silvermane had clearly avoided it himself and I guessed he had a reason to. I did not have to ask if he knew what Sidereals really were. I suspected he would tell me if I asked him in private.
"I needed to see if you believed your own words. I needed to be certain that you were truly who I thought you were the moment I saw you." Silvermane explained. "And it is so. The Unconquered Sun has kindled in you a rare spark. Your return has been long awaited. But you will need many hands to accomplish your vision. Hands that I will gather for you, should you wish them."
"Why would you do something like that for me? You don't even know me!" I wondered uneasily.
"I have always known you. And always will." Silvermane replied. His response did not startle me so much as my own realization that there really was no better way he could have explained it.
I did know him. I had always known him. I just didn't understand how.
"Sit down, drink, eat with us!" Silvermane gestured to the bonfire his men had started. "It's still a long way to your manse. We will go in the morning. And in the meantime I will answer any questions you have for me."
I sat near the fire, and Silvermane set himself only a few feet away from me. As he sat, a strange flickering of light the color of the moon washed over him and his appearance changed.
In moments the lion was gone, and in his place sat a big, silver-haired northern man with a short beard and the same swirling tattoos all over his body. He was dressed in an archaic fashion, mostly blue and black. It was not the style of clothing favored by bandits, not even well-off ones. Silvermane was dressed like a nobleman... albeit a nobleman who had for some reason torn the sleeves off of his shirt.
All of his followers stared in disbelief.
"But Lord Silvermane, your oath!" Six Claws stammered.
"Has been fulfilled." Silvermane replied.
I blinked in surprise myself. If he had seemed familiar to me when I saw him as a lion, I was certain that I knew Silvermane as a man.
"Please excuse the behavior of my men. I fear I have told them far too much about you. And they are not used to seeing me in this form. I have not worn it in a long time. Sometimes difficult to remember that I was born a man and not a lion." Silvermane laughed slightly.
"You're not a beastman?" I observed.
"You've never met a Lunar before?" He seemed surprised.
I remembered what Rhapsody had said about her "Clever Devil" and suddenly understood her need to go to Great Forks as I never had before. If every Solar had a Lunar match... had I just met my own?
"No." I admitted. "I was raised in the Imperial City. I've only been traveling for six months and aside from Nexus, the only other place I've ever lived is the Abbey of Mela."
"The Abbey of Mela?" Silvermane echoed.
"I told you already. I wasan Immaculate monk." I explained.
"No! You were serious?" Silvermane exclaimed. He tilted his head to the side and squinted at me strangely.
What are you doing?" I frowned.
"Trying to see if you still have your soul." He informed me. "You do."
"Thanks." I laughed slightly despite myself. As the full moon peered out from the dark clouds overhead, I was reminded that I hadn't given Godchaser her daily dose of Essence. Also, the moonlight helped me see Kahn more clearly.
Kahn? Where had I gotten that name from?
"So you obviously know who I am." I paused. "Is there a reason you want to help me? Or is it just altruism? And does the name Kahn mean anything to you?" I felt compelled to ask.
The Lunar hesitated. "These days I live however I may, on the very edges of civilization... but before The Usurpation I was proud to call myself a Steward of the Yanazi River Valley. It was once a beautiful and prosperous country with the purest water and best rice in all of Creation. While not nearly as fashionable as Meru or Calypsis, it was ruled by a pair of noble and compassionate Solars, Lawgivers who loved and served their people." He paused. "Kahn is my name, the name I was born with before I became one of Luna's Chosen. You... Perfect always called me Kahn." He corrected himself.
I'd heard the name Perfect Mechanical Soul before. Godchaser had informed me that it was what my name had been my past life when I'd built her. It was still all very strange to me, but I couldn't argue that it wasn't real. The little that I remembered of Perfect's experiences felt as true to me as my memories of my mother and father, and my years in the Abbey of Mela.
When I saw Silvermane sitting across from me, I found that I remembered him very clearly, coming to observe something I had built and not being suitably impressed with it. It had annoyed me at the time and even still, his utter lack of appreciation for anything I built that wasn't a bridge, a building, or some kind of waterworks set me on edge. Or it would have anyway, if I was still Perfect and not myself.
"You knew Perfect? How old are you?" I wondered.
"More than 2,000 years. I don't know exactly." The Lunar replied.
"You don't look a day over fifty." I informed him.
"You didn't look older than thirty when you were nearly three-thousand!" He replied.
Three-thousand years was a lot of time, almost dizzying to think about. More troubling still was the familiarity in our conversation. I knew Silvermane as well as I knew Godchaser and felt that I could trust him implicitly.
"Assuming I believe all of this... how exactly did you know my previous incarnation?" I asked.
"First, we were created at the same time." Silvermane sighed heavily. "Then, we fought in the Primordial War side-by-side. After the War was over, we ruled the world together! Stop trying to sound like a skeptic! You are the person you once were and you know it! Not physically, obviously, but in every way that truly matters. Part of you is divine, and that part of you is Perfect! And the more you come to know your nature as a Solar, the more you will understand everything."
Silvermane paused. "Perhaps the memories of your past life were lost to you for a time, but they've begun been coming back, haven't they? I have heard the story of your Exaltation, of how you leapt from the roof of an Immaculate monastery and worked sorcery as you fell." He laughed. "Luna as my witness, I truthfully believed that all of us returned in the same manner, weak in the knowing of things and unable to command all of our once-great powers. It should not have been possible for you to work sorcery without ever having studied it, or for a mere mortal to repair a device as sophisticated as the one you are currently wearing!"
I instinctively reached up to touch Godchaser's flickering hearthstone.
"I have much experience, with Solars, Veritas. Already you are doing things that would be difficult for an Exalt five times your age! Mad as it sounds... there are those who truly believe that your predecessor has simply returned from the dead." Silvermane explained. "More importantly, you are not the first of your Circle to have returned in this manner. There is some sort of celestial meddling going on." He whispered, scarcely loud enough for me to hear him.
"I really don't know what you're talking about. As I see it, I've just gotten lucky." I replied uneasily.
Godchaser giggled.
"Godchaser says you're a liar." Silvermane replied.
"How do you..." I began, again struggling with the word "Sidereals". I was almost afraid that if I said it, one of them would hear... and Silvermane seemed to think the same. He glanced at Godchaser with a smile.
"How do I know her name?" He changed the subject. "Why, I was the one who named her! What you called her was far too long, and no one could remember it correctly. This life's turning may be more awkward for us than the last... but as Creation is these days, either of us could die at any moment. Either of us could die, and we would be reborn. And in time we would meet again, as we are meeting now. I may not know your face and you may not know mine, but we will never be strangers." Silvermane smiled slightly.
"I'm not the same person. I doubt that we'll have the same relationship." I informed him.
"Oh, that is obvious! You are a man in this life!" Silvermane laughed. "Also, I currently have a wife. To be perfectly honest, she's not very smart... but she is a good woman. I suspect she'll be relieved to learn that you've come back as a man. She worries sometimes that I might get bored and abandon her. I will, probably, one day." He chuckled slightly, but there was something in eyes that spoke volumes more than he said. I knew with certainty that if I suggested that we run away together he would all too gladly follow me.
That thought was troubling. Personally, I preferred women, although I had never had much luck with them, not even when I was wealthy. And even if I hadn't met Rhapsody, I wouldn't have wanted to send any sort of mixed signals to Silvermane. I liked him immediately, but I could not imagine being a woman... which was perhaps why the idea of having a husband from a past life did not sit very well with me.
But was it as simple as that? What Silvermane had said about the two of us being created as a pair stuck in my mind. We balanced one another somehow, on a strange, unknowable level. I'd been blown by the wind from one corner of Creation to the other and hadn't even realized how precarious my grip on the world had become. Silvermane was grounded, immobile like a rock. He was sanity in an otherwise mad world and simply being in his presence made me feel more secure in my own skin. Despite my apprehension, I'd found myself creeping closer and closer to him until we sat side-by-side looking into the flames of his campfire.
"Are you married? Do you have a family?" Silvermane asked me.
"I was an only child and my parents are dead. I've never married." I paused. "But... there is someone."
"Oh." Silvermane observed with a smile. "I know that look! What's her name?"
"Windswept Rhapsody." I replied. Her name did have a musical quality to it, and when I'd told Doctor Basha about my lovely bard... I'd almost forgotten that he would think of all the folk songs that she had written about herself.
Silvermane paled suddenly. "Excuse me? What did you say?"
There was something wrong, I could tell from his face.
"Do you know Rhapsody?" I wondered uneasily.
"Yes, I... I knew Rhapsody." He admitted.
"Something's happened to her?" I stared in disbelief. A thousand different horrible thoughts were hammering through my mind and I swore I felt my heart skip a beat.
"It is very hard for me to say this." Silvermane explained. "But a terrible thing has happened. I fear that Windswept Rhapsody is dead."
"Dead? But we parted ways in Nexus... it's only been a month since I saw her last! She was on her way to Great Forks. How can she be dead?" I demanded. Questions simply poured out of me. I wanted to believe that Silvermane was wrong.
No... I had to believe that Silvermane was wrong!
"We may never know what happened." Silvermane paused. "As I'm sure you know, Windswept Rhapsody lived up to her name, traveling from place to place with a seldom a trace of her presence left behind. But I heard a song played in a tavern not three nights ago. I asked the bard where he had learned it and he could not remember. And so I went to the place that his song spoke of, an inn near a bridge on the banks of the Yellow River. That was where I found this." Silvermane admitted, producing something wrapped in a handkerchief. "I don't recognize it, but... it seems like something she would have."
I saw only the cord made from my old cloak and one blue bead, but that was enough.
"It's hers. I made it for her." I whispered, hearing the tremor in my own voice as I spoke.
"Ill news. I had hoped that it was not so." Silvermane paused.
"If you didn't bury her, I won't believe she's dead!" I informed him, my voice a little harsher than I had meant for it to be. "And if she is dead... someone is responsible!"
"Perfect, I know what you are thinking and you must not do it!" He warned. "If you have any love in your heart for Rhapsody at all, know that she would not want you to avenge her! She would want you to continue doing what The Unconquered Sun Exalted you for... not go chasing after her ghost!"
Although he had called me by the name of my previous incarnation again, I didn't correct him. What could I have said? He was right, I had to admit it. But I didn't have to like it!
Silvermane stared at me gravely and then gave me Rhapsody's amulet without speaking. I didn't look at it, putting it directly in my pocket where it sat like a cold lead weight against my heart.
"You're not going to sleep tonight, are you?" He asked.
"No. Not a chance." I admitted. Though I still wanted to ask Silvermane about Sidereals, my mind was still fixed on Rhapsody. It would have to wait.
"Lie down at least. Close your eyes for a little while. There is nothing either of us can do presently and things will seem clearer in the morning." Silvermane advised. He looked ready to say something else, and I waited for him to finish speaking but he never managed another word.
He simply turned and hugged me for a little longer than I felt comfortable with and then excused himself to go check on his men. Long after he'd gone, I found myself staring up at the night sky and trying to convince myself that Silvermane was wrong. I had to believe that Rhapsody was still alive... that I could find her, wherever she was, and save her. Even if she had left me with no notice at all, I couldn't stomach the thought of anything bad happening to her.
Rhapsody could not be dead! No one with a soul could have possibly harmed her!
I did not sleep at all that night. I paced and cursed, laid down, got up again and drank far more than I should have. Not for the first time, I worried over the extent of my own power.
While I was still convinced that I was supposed to be a force for good, I could not ignore how the wheels in my mind had spun effortlessly as I considered a number of ruthless ways to find and punish whoever had killed Rhapsody. The same skills that had allowed me to restore the life-saving fountain in Nexus could just as easily be put to work building something inconceivably deadly. Or...
I knew that I could banish demons. Could I summon them?
I woke with Rhapsody's amulet clenched so tightly in my fist that its rays had imprinted themselves in my skin. Silvermane stood over me with a walking stick in his hand. He helped me to my feet and passed me the stick.
"So where are we going, Kahn?" I wondered, trying to conceal the fact that I had spent most of the night gritting my teeth and ignoring Godchaser's quiet, supportive whispers. I realized only belatedly that I had instinctively called him by his old name.
"Up." Silvermane replied, gesturing to a large hill in the distance. I wouldn't have called it a mountain because trees covered its summit... but it was definitely the biggest thing around for miles.
"My manse is on top of that hill?" I observed, feeling my spirits sink.
"No, your manse is that hill! There was a great flood at the time of the Contagion and it has been covered with dirt for many centuries. The main doors do not open, so we will have to go all the way to the top. That is why I brought you a stick." Silvermane laughed. "Another lifetime and you still don't like walking?"
"I hate it." I replied. "I got used to it before I sailed for Nexus, but three months on a ship spoiled me."
"I can't imagine being on a ship for so long." Silvermane grimaced.
"At least there's no walking!" I retorted.
As distant as the mountain had appeared, in less than a day we had reached our destination. If I bought myself a horse or procured some other sort of transportation, I could likely make the journey from the city in just a single day.
As we traveled, I didn't say much to Silvermane. All of his men seemed to worship the ground that I walked on, so there was no sense in trying to strike up a conversation with any of them. Besides, my mind was still on Rhapsody and Sidereals. Something told me that the two were connected in a manner that I wouldn't like.
When we neared the manse, Godchaser woke. She said something incoherent about being very close to our destination and then began to whistle, drawing the attention of all of our traveling companions... but especially Silvermane who smiled nostalgically as she swept off of my shoulders and hovered after him.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect as we neared the mountain's summit. Part of me saw white marble columns with golden veins while at the same time I considered that a cave might be more appropriate. Nothing could have prepared me for the enormous, seamless orichalcum box that sat silently on very edge of treeline, glowing faintly with the light of the mid-afternoon sun.
The rest of the manse was buried... and I couldn't guess or remember what it had looked like.
"It's a box." Six Claws observed.
Silvermane's second-in-command was not very bright.
Fortunately, I didn't need instructions. As I had when I'd first laid eyes upon Godchaser and my fountain, I knew exactly what to do. I put both of my hands on the orichalcum and poured Essence into it. I could feel the instability of the manse as I sent my Essence racing through its walls. When I'd exhausted all that I could and started to burn visibly, I took a step back.
"Open." I ordered in Old Realm. The box opened obediently, revealing a cave-like entrance filled with rocks and mold that more closely resembled my original expectations. "This is probably as far as the rest of you should go. This place is very unstable." I admitted, still shaken by what I'd felt before opening the door.
"Are you certain that you don't need my help?" Silvermane pressed.
"You'd only be in danger." I informed him.
"No more danger than you!" He snorted.
"I'd be in more danger then." I replied. "On account of worrying!"
"You'd worry about me?" Silvermane eyed me suspiciously.
"I'd worry about anyone who followed me into this place." I retorted, trying to underplay my extremely awkward confession. "I don't really know how long this might take. There's no sense in waiting around for me to come out. Head back to where we camped before and I'll find you before I return to Nexus. And please... tell me if you hear anything of Rhapsody."
Silvermane nodded. "Count on it."
The door closed between us.
Godchaser giggled.
"What do you think is so funny?" I demanded.
"You." She replied, saying nothing.
I took a deep breath and surveyed our surroundings. "So this is the "home" you've always talked about?" I observed, grimacing as a stone and a clump of moss fell from the ceiling above my head. "I'm not impressed."
"It used to be cleaner." Godchaser admitted.
"I'll bet!" I laughed slightly, although I saw nothing particularly funny about staggering into a potentially deadly ruined manse. "What now?"
"Well, now we go to the hearthstone room." Godchaser replied.
"And where is that?" I demanded.
"Down." Godchaser replied. That was all she remembered.
Eighteen flights of stairs later, we were still descending. "How much farther is it?" I demanded.
"I don't know! It's close but I don't know where and I'm already getting tired and I..." Godchaser rambled.
I leaned against the wall and sighed heavily. An invisible door slid open behind me and I fell to the floor.
"Oh. Found it!" Godchaser observed.
"Yes, I noticed." Rubbing my bruised elbow, I looked up at the room we'd just entered. It was not very large and in the center of the space was a pedestal flooded with golden-white light. A brand-new hearthstone identical to Godchaser's hovered in midair, burning like a falling star.
So that was the trouble with the manse? It had been trying to produce a new hearthstone, the first it had born in more than a thousand years! I reached forward to touch the stone. It was so beautiful that I couldn't stop myself. And yet moments before my fingertips would have made contact, a face made of light burst out of the hearthstone's pedestal.
"Maker!" Godchaser shrieked. I covered my head and fell to the floor.
"How dare you enter my manse? Who do you think you are?" The apparition roared, speaking in Old Realm with the voice of a woman. Whatever it was, it was clearly meant to terrify... but I would not be deterred.
Without hesitation I poured as much of my Essence as I had left through the new hearthstone and into the manse, focusing on the parts that were the most unstable and forcing my will on them, telling them to mend. For the briefest of moments, the shifting face stabilized and I saw a woman looking down on me. She could have been my sister with how similar we appeared, but I knew who she was. I recognized her as I would have recognized my own reflection. She was Perfect. "I'm you." I informed her.
The apparition of Perfect froze. She considered me for a moment and then smiled faintly. "So you are." She whispered. And as she disappeared, I realized that I had done it... I'd saved the manse and seized control of it. All of the Essence it produced was flowing unrestricted through Godchaser, and from its new hearthstone into me. The feeling was almost dizzying, like a drink of water after a long run.
"You did it!" Godchaser exclaimed. "I'm better! I'm all better!"
I smiled and immediately passed out.
Some hours later I woke up to a large spider crawling across my face and Godchaser hovering over me, looking concerned. The manse's new hearthstone was still in my hand and there was no sign of its guardian, the last surviving vestiges of my previous incarnation. As I walked out of the hearthstone room, the wall closed behind me with a slight hiss. What had been a door became an almost invisible crack in the wall, too subtle for anyone to detect. I continued on down the stairs, still tired but energized by my success and the constant, steady flow of Essence from my new hearthstone. I was especially eager to see what gems my past self might have hidden in her secret stronghold.
Finally, I reached the very bottom of the stairs. A solid orichalcum door stood before me, engraved with five symbols, one for each Solar Caste. As if possessed, I slowly traced the marks for Dawn, Zenith, Night and Eclipse. When my hand stopped on the Twilight, the door slid open. A huge gust of stale air assaulted my senses. I coughed and looked up. Despite the fact that I was still glowing involuntarily, there was not enough light to see anything.
Godchaser whistled. "Oooh, what a mess!" She exclaimed. Like a candle against the dark, Godchaser hovered up and away from me, higher and higher. Around her I caught brief glimpses of exciting-looking things and began to wonder just how big the space we had entered actually was.
"Ahah!" She observed. "Maker, throw something up here!" Godchaser shouted down. "Throw something right at me!"
"I don't have anything to throw!" I protested, squinting as I tried to guess how far away she was. Maybe a hundred feet up? I was surprised that I could still hear her. Months ago, I would have protested that I couldn't possibly throw anything so far, but I wasn't in the mood to feign weakness then. I looked around for something that might do significant damage.
"Throw a Resplendent Whirlagig! You've got a million of them!" Godchaser retorted. When I didn't immediately oblige, she must have guessed that I didn't know what she meant. "Ugh, Maker! One of those round things by your foot!" She clarified. I looked down. I was standing almost on top of a pile of little orichalcum balls each about the size of a child's toy. Without bothering to consider what they were or what they could be used for, I picked up the closest and hurled it up with all the force I could.
There was a loud crack as my ball struck something metal and a shower of dirt cascaded down from the ceiling. Wincing as a rock hit my shoulder, I saw that the sun had begun to shine into the room. I picked up another orichalcum ball and threw it in Godchaser's direction. More dirt fell from the ceiling and a loud groan of creaking metal drew my attention. Godchaser cheered as I hurled one last ball. When it struck its target, the ceiling opened up like a flower in the morning and all of a sudden, the room was filled with light.
I stared. It was all I could do.
"Maker?" Godchaser wondered, hovering down to join me. "Are you all right?"
"I am either dreaming or dead." I replied.
"I know it's dirty, but do you like it?" She asked.
"That's not a strong enough word." I replied. "Can we get some more light in here? Light!" I ordered in Old Realm. In response to my voice, the manse rumbled to life.
Of course! It was so simple! Why hadn't I remembered to do that before? Even in the dark I'd been awed and I hadn't even seen half of what there was to see. The main chamber was more than four hundred feet long and twice that wide, but what was really remarkable was just how the high the ceiling was. I knew I'd been down a lot of stairs, but from the floor I felt like I was staring up from the Underworld.
Staircases on either side of the open room lead to various platforms of different heights that I could tell were designed to raise and lower themselves. The entire room was impossibly huge and filled with so many books that I could never hope to read them all... not even if I did have more than 3,000 years.
High above I could see a fragment of sky where the metal panels that formed the roof had cracked open slightly, littering the floor with dirt, rocks and dead leaves. A prismatic blue butterfly flew just over my head and a massive orb-weaver spider had made its home across the stairs.
There was more raw material than I knew what to do with... orichalcum, moonsilver, jade... things I couldn't hope to identify. One table held a bowl full of glimmering hearthstones, keys to who knew how many more hidden manses scattered throughout Creation.
I'd never been inside the Heptagram but I had to imagine that even the greatest Sorcerers of the Realm would have wept had they entered into that wondrous laboratory. It was more sophisticated than the finest factory I'd ever seen with the grace of a cathedral, not merely a workshop, but a sacred space, a temple to knowledge and craftsmanship.
I recognized the furnace directly in front of me from my memory of building Godchaser and there was an enormous screen of some kind on the opposite side of the room. The wealth of unfinished projects on every open surface caused my head to spin. I could work for centuries and never fix everything!
Although... I did know where I wanted to start.
There were two strange-looking, birdlike constructs resting on a movable rig at least forty feet off of the floor. For a moment I marveled at them and wondered how they'd gotten up so high... but then Godchaser noticed what I was looking at.
"Hm." She mused, hovering up to inspect the nearest one. "Oh, the warbirds? I wonder if this one will still fly?"
"Fly? I echoed. "You mean, out of here?" I gazed up at the open roof.
"Of course! Maker, you didn't make a roof like that to just let bugs in!" She reprimanded me.
I surveyed my manse, shocked by the realization that nothing had been disturbed since I'd seen it last except by nature. If anything, the butterflies and the overgrown foliage simply made the room even more exotically beautiful. I caught a copper-colored spider scurrying away from my foot and held it up to the light.
It wasn't any species that I recognized, and when I adjusted my glasses and looked at it very closely, I realized it was actually a tiny construct!
"Well now, aren't you fascinating?" I laughed, poking at it. Like a living thing, it reared up on four of its eight legs and batted at my finger. I sighed and released it onto the floor. To my surprise, it did not run away. It followed me. A dozen others of its kind emerged from every hidden corner of the room, and then a dozen more. There were hundreds of them, a tiny army! Godchaser floated over my shoulder as I approached the main terminal and dusted off the chair that sat in front of it. The spiders surrounded me. They looked as if they were waiting for something.
"Tell the spiders to go work." Godchaser prompted.
I turned to the spiders. "Go work." I ordered in Old Realm.
They immediately skittered away. I didn't know what they would be doing and wasn't sure that I should care. How much trouble could a little spider cause anyway? I brushed the dirty and dried leaves off of the control panel for the massive terminal in front of me. I hadn't the faintest idea how to operate the device... if it even worked at all.
"Hello, I AM." Godchaser chirped. "We're back!"
There was no response.
"I said we're back!" Godchaser repeated. "Hello? Hello, I AM? Maker, I AM is broken!" She whined.
"We'll see about that!" I replied. I glanced briefly at the small toolbox I'd cobbled together before leaving Doctor Basha's house and shoved it with my foot under a nearby table, reminding myself to bring it back to the mysterious Sidereal... when and if I could actually find him. I wouldn't be needing it any more.
I'd caught sight of a familiar cabinet in the far corner, as tall as I was and six or seven feet wide. There were no handles to open it, but I didn't need anything so mundane. The faintest brush of my fingertips caused the pristine white panels to slide open, revealing every kind of tool I might ever desire as well as some I couldn't even name, all brilliantly crafted.
The ones meant for the heaviest or most complex work were painstakingly forged from magical materials. I picked up a very small pair of silvery pliers. When I gave them an experimental squeeze, they changed shape slightly. Focusing intently, I gave them a bit of Essence and told them to twist slightly to the left, and then to the right.
"I see you found your tools." Godchaser observed. "They're distracting you, aren't they?"
I couldn't bring myself to respond, still mesmerized by the little pliers I held in my hand.
Effortlessly reading the expression on my face, Godchaser laughed.