God-King Sigmar
Gabriel Veridan had been making his rounds across the tower when the body appeared.
What had been until now very normal day had changed in an instant. Suddenly an explosion had resounded across Azyrheim, and the man feared Chaos had finally reached Azyr.
BOOOOOM!
"What in Sigmar's name-?!" He had exclaimed.
Hurrying to look at the direction of the smoke that had risen in one of the many streets of the city, he reached for his sword waiting to see what had happened.
The people of the golden city began to hurry and flee screaming Sigmar's name asking for help. The guards, meanwhile, had run towards the place of the sudden attack with weapons at the ready.
Like those that had come to rescue Harry, they were draped in golden armour and had hammers, swords, spears, and other weapons drawn out.
Once the smoke cleared, the warriors felt confusion settle in their minds.
It was the body of an old man, with a long beard and glasses. His clothes were colourful and reminded them of those usually wore by wizards.
"It's that a corpse?" One asked.
Another approached the sudden apparition while his companions waited with weapons drawn, prepared just in case it was a trap. The man crouched and brought one gloved hand towards the immobile old man nose. He took the leather glove off and brought two fingers bellow the nose of the still wizard. After a couple of seconds, he then put those fingers in his neck and waited another while.
Once he finished, he got up from his position and looked at his companions.
"He is dead" He declared.
"Really?" One of the guards asked in doubt.
"Yes, he doesn't have a pulse and he isn't breathing".
"It's the Forces of Chaos? A tactic to distract us maybe? Or is the undead that had decided to begin hurling corpses to infest the city and rise later…?" One of them speculated.
"Whatever the case, we must inform Sigmar, great lord of the Realms. Let's take this old man out of here and to somewhere safe and locked".
The rest nodded and two of them caught the old wizard's corpse from its position. Once done that, the group began their journey towards the inside of the buildings in the fortified city.
XXX
Sigmar Heldenhammer had been a man in another life. Now he had become a God. But that didn't mean he was infallible. He had failed to protect his kingdom and its people from evil forces before.
Betrayed by his allies' eons ago, he had sealed his Realm from a crumbling empire when Chaos set its sights on it. But he had persevered. He had risen like a phoenix from its ashes and retaliated.
Now, sitting on his throne, he pondered and planed his next moves in the war against Them. Today had not changed from other day before until the commotion in Azyrheim. When a messenger hurried to the chamber where He was currently in, Sigmar rose from His seat and waited for the panting man to regain his breath.
The messenger had no armour and wore clothes of fine thread. He seemed like a man of an important position and his blonde hair was combed back leaving his forehead bare. He wore a white shirt with golden engravings and frilled sleeves.
"My lord! There's news from Azyrheim! Apologies for bargaining!" He bowed and declared.
"Please… Calm down. Tell me what happened" Sigmar said with a calm and reassuring voice.
The chamber where the messenger had entered was a sacred place. Filled with thrones made of different materials, all looked at a great mirror. The man had entered there and felt not worthy.
"Its Azyrheim my lord, Great Sigmar. The body of a wizard had appeared suddenly in one of its streets".
Sigmar digested the information and began thinking.
"How strange. And you say it's a wizard? Wait… what do you mean body?" Sigmar asked.
"It's a corpse Sir. One of the guards that approached the place of the incident tried to feel the pulse and breath of the man but there were none" He responded.
Sigmar began analysing this new development. He thought of all the possible reasons the unfortunate corpse had come from. Chaos? Nagash? A new threat? He wandered inside the room while the messenger waited for his Master to order him to go away.
"Hmmm… It is a strange occurrence. Where did the guards take the body?".
"To Heavenhall my Lord".
Sigmar nodded.
"Dismissed".
The man nodded, rose from his position, and made a sign of salute. Then, twisting, he left the chamber.
"Yes my Lord!" He said before leaving.
Sigmar went back to sit in his golden throne and looked at the mirror. He had a bad feeling about this.
Closing his eyes, the God raised his hand in front of him and waited. After a brief pause, he opened and looked at the object in front of him.
The mirror was magical and so it showed Sigmar the different Realms of the Cosmos Arcane. The surface of the mirror changed from reflecting His Visage to focus in one of the Realms.
Shyish, the land of the dead.
Sigmar's eyes widened in surprise. An unconscious girl materialized in the Realm falling from the sky like a meteor. She had black hair and vibrant green eyes that opened moments later indicating she had awoken. But her most distinct feature, one that had His Attention the moment he saw it was the scar on her forehead. Shaped like a lighting bolt, it bled like it had been freshly made.
"What is this…?" The God said to the air.
The girl got up and touched her forehead. Once she saw the scar was bleeding, the girl wiped it out before surveying her surroundings.
Sigmar had seen enough. He needed to send a rescue party to the Realm immediately. She was in danger and maybe she could answer His questions.
Raising his hand, the man conjured lighting from it and launched the mass of electricity to the air. Convoking his warriors to him, a group entered the room and knelt before him.
"My Lord! We stand before You, waiting your command!" The leader declared.
"As you had probably heard, a mysterious corpse had ended up ashore in Azyrheim. You must travel to the Realm of Shyish. A girl had been transported there against her will and must be brought here so I can ask her a couple of questions. These two events seem to be related. Here's what she looks like".
The leader looked at the mirror and saw the aforementioned girl.
"Yes, my Lord!" He spoke.
The warriors rose from their position, and they left the chamber with a last salute.
Sigmar nodded pleased with their lack of hesitation and went back to sit on His throne. Once done that, he went back to see if any other person had reached The Mortal Realms but didn't find anything.
XXX
The portal that Harry had exited from made the group appear in a land different from before. It had trees and foliage that she didn't recognise. Strange reptiles and insects inhabited it and everywhere she looked at was new, terrifying and wonderous.
The warriors hadn't talked to her anymore but had conversations between them. Some laughed, others discussed topics Harry didn't know what were about. But it didn't matter what they said, she still could not understand any of their language.
Harry was getting frustrated by the minute. She had lost her wand, but even if she had it, magic was not an option for her since the time she tried unsuccessfully in the town of the dead. Her cloak was still missing, and Harry feared that had remained on Earth the moment she had pushed Voldemort through the archway in the Department of Mysteries.
A sudden frightening thought entered her mind. If she was here, it was probable Voldemort was too. And Harry didn't know if he had the same problem as her when it came to magic. The idea of fighting him and only her not having the means to defend herself with her wand made her wish she had a knife, club, or something.
Harry stopped thinking about the man and her problems when she saw the group had paused.
Like before, they had brought her to another archway and portal. This one was made of two trees interwoven and congealed into the shape of a gate without doors.
The symbol atop the gate was a group of concentric circles cut by a line. The flowers decorating the trees glowed with different colours. Harry looked at it in wonder but could not wait to appreciate its beauty because her companions had started to pass through its portal.
Sighing in defeat, Harry steeled herself and went with them to parts unknown.
XXX
Tom Marvolo Riddle had lost his ability to need to eat, sleep and drink the moment he created his first horcrux. But those bodily functions had returned the moment he entered this world.
He was now eating a piece of meat from a lizard he had hunted. The loss of his ability to perform magic making him do everything manually like when before he knew he was a wizard.
He had tried a couple of more times but could not perform any type of magic he knew. This presented a problem and he wanted to scream to the heavens in frustration.
The land was dangerous. Every living creature in it tried to eat and kill each other. Frequent earthquakes assailed the land and the world felt like it was made by giants. He had not seen more of those humanoid rats and had stayed close to the cave as to have a base of operations in this strange place.
The knife of the ratman was useful to kill prey and he had decided to make a mental map of his surroundings. Hours after he had slain the beast he was going to begin exploring. The daylight needed to be used before nightfall.
Voldemort began walking outside the forest and with the knife concealed in his robes. Once at the edge, he saw smoke raising in the distance. That meant civilization and maybe answer to his questions.
He had surpassed a couple of valleys and hills when the settlement made itself known. It was a tribal town. Surrounded by a wall made of cut trees, it had an open gate big enough for a cart with provisions to pass.
Voldemort approached silently the settlement and looked inside.
The hoses were made of wood, stone bricks and straw. The people inside the town wore furs and leather. But what took his attention were the engraved symbols in their bodies. Prominently in the shape of an eight-pointed star of a circle with eight arrows emerging from it.
But, more than humans dwelled there. From a hut in one side, a creature emerged. It had the head and legs of a goat but humanoid anywhere else.
And then it began to speak.
"Aril'sva Khorne bal slt-sit'e argo-st" The creature said with a guttural voice.
"Mor'a dui-a var urw ci koat" A woman replied.
"Slaanesh vut jolkt! Hro-f boa'e vkibu" A man objected.
" Tyro ñao'op vnvo-" The humanoid goat retaliated.
Voldemort decided then to leave before he could be discovered.
The encounter had shed a little light of the place and made him consider all he had learned until now.
It seemed humans lived here, but also all manner of creatures and humanoid beasts. The language was a problem, and without magic he could not use any translation spells to understand their tongue.
He then went back to the cave to decide his next course of action.
XXX
In the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries, the aurors and the Order of the Phoenix had left the room hours ago when an unexpected visitor came.
craaaaak!
The sound of a muffled explosion filled the air without alerting security. A small humanoid creature approached the stone archway in the centre of the room.
Resting one hand atop one of the sides of it, the intruder closed its eyes and waited without making a sound.
After a brief pause and nodding to itself, the visitor left the place the same way it came. Nobody would know about the strange event until later.
XXX
Harry almost fainted when she arrived at their final destination.
After a couple of more portals going through metallic mountain ranges and blazing volcanoes to deserts that stretched over the horizon, the group had arrived where she could only describe as their base of operations.
A city of golden colour, with white and blue also in some places. But what caught the attention the most was where it was situated.
Floating in the air, the city had an open night sky filled with glittering stars. A moon situated next to a blazing planet the size of earth surrounded by a ring of what she could only describe as buildings, clockwork, and factories.
The streets where the size of various buildings and the people could walk through them without knocking with each other.
"Wooow…" She exclaimed in wonder. One of the men that had aided her looked back at her expression and chuckled.
Harry then noticed the citizens and gasped. Not only humans lived here. Men of short stature with beards braided with jewellery and carrying tools of metallurgy, armour of exquisite quality and boots of leather conversed with tall men and women of pointed ears that were dressed in long flowing dressed.
Harry saw that everyone there looked like they were having pleasant talks with one another. The city also had more of the golden warriors standing guard across the expanse of the citadel.
It was then that Harry noticed the people of the city had begun to look at her. It seemed like the warriors accompanying her and her clothes had attracted the attention of the crows who started to whisper with each other in the same language her guardians were.
Harry blushed and wished the ground would swallow her in shame. But she tried to ignore them. In Britain had happened the same. It was for different reasons but the fact she was an oddity wherever she went had not changed.
The group stopped at the gates of the walls that lead to the inside of the city. It seemed like from where she and the group had come was only a point of transit between different places.
The gates were engraved with iconography of another warrior similar to her companions. Around his head, a halo of lightning bolts framed his expressionless face. In front of it, a shield, and a hammer from which more lighting bolts formed. The line that indicated the two doors divided the engraving in half.
After a moment of pause, the gates slowly began to open for them. Once it was big enough, the group resumed their walk with the girl close behind.
Harry steeled herself and prepared for whatever it were to come.
XXX
Grimmauld Place was gloomier than ever. Sirius had a beard from not having shaved since Harry went missing. A bottle of liquor rested in a table beside him. Dust accumulated in the furniture and the emptiness filling the man's hearth echoed in the house.
Harry's friends had come to visit the man and try to console him. The Order of the Phoenix had meanwhile been busy sorting out the Death Eaters in the Ministry and talked about Dumbledore's demise.
Newspaper had been printed and one copy rested in the couch beside the man. It celebrated the death of Voldemort; the heroic sacrifice Harry had made to kill him and the tragic death of one of the most famous and powerful wizards with the announcement of Dumbledore's funeral in the coming weeks.
Hermione, Ron, Luna, Ginny, and Neville had stayed behind with Sirius as to keep tabs on him and preventing him from doing anything stupid.
"I can't believe Harry is gone…" Sirius said the first time since the battle.
"Yeah…" Ron seconded.
"I… I promised James and Lily I would always protect Harry… with my life. And yet…" He felt tears and rubbed his hand against his eyes to dry them" I'm a failure. It should have been me. I should be dead, not Harry".
"Don't say that Sirius! Harry always was like this" Hermione objected" She always had this 'Saving-people-thing' and she was the bravest witch I known! They were her best qualities".
Neville and Ginny nodded.
Sirius smiled halfway and sighed in defeat.
"You're right Hermione. I just wish I could she her one last time to tell her how much I love her. To see my little Pup, grow up and become a wonderful woman…".
The group went back to the previous silence. But they were interrupted by a crack in the air.
Crrrrraaaaaack!
It was Dobby the house-elf. A humanoid subservient species of magical creatures with long thin limbs, big floppy ears and eyes almost always filled with fear.
"Dobby…?" Sirius asked.
"Dobby is sorry sir Sirius sir! Dobby wanted to speak about wonderful brave Greatest Witch Harry Potter sir! Dobby inform him about Great Wonderful missy Harriet needs to!".
"What is it Dobby? You can tell us anything" Hermione reached with a hand and tried to calm the hyperactive house-elf.
"Thank you missy Granger missy. Dobby must inform Sir Sirius sir and Great Harry Potter friends yes!"´
"Please Dobby, get to the point" Sirius said exasperated.
"Yes sir! Dobby went to visit place of final battle sir. Dobby needed to make sure Dobby feeling was correct. And it was!".
AT that, the group looked at the house-elf and their attention spiked.
"Feeling? What do you mean Dobby?" Hermione asked.
At that the house-elf dropped his head in shame and embarrassment. He struggled to continue for a couple of seconds before he finally answered her.
"Dobby had not been completely sincere missy Granger. Dobby did something bad, but it was good because it make Dobby know right away!" Dobby said.
"What did you do mate. We are waiting!" Ron exclaimed in frustration.
"Ronald!" Hermione chastised him" Forgive him Dobby. Please continue…".
The creature nodded and continued speaking.
"Dobby made connexion with Great and Powerful and Beautiful Harry Potter last year missy Granger! The Great Harriet Potter helped Dobby be free from Evil Treacherous Unworthy Master she did!" He said" Dobby didn't say because Great Harry Potter said to Dobby she didn't want house-elf servant, but Dobby did it in secret against Harry Potter wishes!".
Hermione contained her desire to make a speech about slavery and her ideas about house-elf bonding as servants.
"Please Dobby get to the point" Neville asked the house-elf.
"Yes sir!" He nodded towards the boy" When Great Harry Potter entered Death Gate, Dobby feared connexion with Great Harry potter was to be lost like other times house-elf master die! But it didn't!".
Their eyes widened at the implication.
"Please Dobby… If this is some kind of joke…" Sirius looked on the brink of a mental breakdown, containing his hope and fear of what the creature implied.
"No sir! Dobby went and made sure! Miss Harriet Lily Potter is alive! Dobby can feel it!".
Sirius jumped from the couch and with two strides grabbed the house-elf by the shoulders.
"Really?! Is this true?! My goddaughter is still alive?! Where is she?! Please Dobby… I-I ca-an't lose her…" The man felt tears streaming down the sides of his face.
"Dobby does not lie Sir! The Great Powerful Kind Harry Potter is alive! But she is not here. She is not anywhere on this world! She had gone to another place".
The group digested the new information and felt tears of joy filling their eyes. Harry was alive!
"Yes!" Ron cheered.
"How wonderful!" Luna concurred.
"Then where is she? How can we go rescue her? Can you bring us there?" Hermione asked then.
"Dobby does not know the place. He tried to reach missy Harry Potter, but Dobby can't. We would need to enter the archway in the Death Room".
The group stopped their celebration then. They looked at each other and after a brief pause started to talk.
"We will do it" Sirius declared.
"If she is not on Earth and can't come back we will go to her" Hermione seconded.
"An adventure. How fun!" Luna began bouncing in place.
"We will need to tell the Order" Ron suggested.
"Yes. We need to make them know Harry is still out there. Maybe they will help" Sirius agreed.
"We need to prepare. Maybe we could ask the Ministry for permission to use the Death Chamber?" Neville asked.
It was a couple of minutes brainstorming ideas before the group could plan their rescue mission.
"Then, is decided" Sirius declared with finality" We are going to rescue Harry and bring her back!".
The rest cheered and went that night to sleep with smiles on their faces and anticipation on their hearths.
XXX
The city had buildings topped with blue domes and ceilings. Every one of them it seemed to be made as a living space, places of knowledge and smithies. Harry even saw a garden with a dome made of tinted glass.
It was during their walk than Harry saw an increase in guards and different races. Wingless gryphons the size of dogs walked beside humanoid lizards dressed in clothes similar to Mesoamerican tribes.
All around her, the human, dwarves, elves, and any manner of creature present had trinkets and jewellery in the shape of the sun, moon, and star.
A boy of no more than ten pointed at Harry's scar and his mother shushed him. Harry made a half-smile at that and furrowed her brows.
It was at the far end of their path where the girl found a set of stairs that ascended to the flattened top of a mountain. The peak was almost constantly showered by blue lightning that hit spheres and devices. Harry wondered if they used the energy to power the city.
The former mountain had been repurposed to house different palaces of a variety of materials and shapes. A castle made from enormous bones, a wooden stockade strewn about with flowers, plants, and other manner of forest life. Twin, squat fortresses, one of iron and one of frozen fire, a counterpoint to the trio of slender towers whilst in a vale of scented woods where the waters of a lake tumbled to the lands below and an oak of inconceivable size grew.
The ascension towards those buildings lasted several minutes, and once at the gates of the one at the far end, the group waited for the doors to open.
A palace wealthier than the buildings in the city below with a path to the doors flanked by giant statues of naked muscled men. It had a single tower, high above it, decorated with an enormous disc resembling a sun whose rays were shaped like lightning bolts too. The gates were situated above another set of stairs, this less numerous than the ones before them.
Harry wondered why the iconography repeated in so many ways and places but had to leave that thought the moment the doors started to move.
XXX
The insides of it were spectacular.
Paintings and statues of unmeasurable value made of unknown materials greeted Harry with their opulence.
Battles with armies and monsters filled her head and overwhelmed her. Guards stood still as statues with weapons at the ready. Servants dedicated their time to maintain such immense fortress of power. A room containing a library the size of a house was filled with tomes and books of different subjects.
The procession didn't last long for Harry. The guards and her companions stopped at the forefront of a closed room.
At the moment an invisible command was said, the group invited Harry to enter the chamber the second the gates opened.
The inside of the place was filled with various thrones, each decorated differently. All had their backs turned on them and looked at a giant mirror. Seated in the golden throne in the middle of the rest was a man in golden armour.
When he heard the group enter, he rose from his position and turned to look at Harry.
She felt herself blush. The man was very attractive. He had long brown hair that reached his shoulders and a braided beard that framed his face. In his forehead, a band of gold with a blue gem in its centre evoked a crown. He smiled at Harry with a gentle expression and his brown eyes conveyed safety.
His hands were filled with rings in their fingers. His armour had the same symbol of the lightning bolt and a furred cape draped behind him. He was in a great shape, with muscles hidden by his clothes that didn't diminish his strength. The man raised a hand and the kneeling warriors got up from their positions.
"Arto Sigmar jila-ute' wanit-ac…" He said with a grave voice, it reminded Harry of the sound of thunder and an approaching storm.
"Sorry… I don't understand anything you say…" She tried to explain her problem.
The man frowned then. He looked at Harry, studying her. He nodded and looked at one of the warriors.
"Calo't iwbnd voart-a't urtl!" He commanded. The warrior on her left nodded once and left the room.
The moments waiting to see what this king had ordered his subject to do lasted more than Harry wanted, since the man was still staring at her. He looked at her clothes and then at her scar. It had stopped bleeding a while ago and the dried blood made it more obvious.
At the end, the man returned with one of the dwarves in tow. The man had a long red beard braided and filled with jewellery. He had a pair of glasses with several contraptions that seemed to be used as augmenting devices. In his belt, a couple of tools hanged from it.
After a moment to wonder why this new man had come to the room, he nodded and before Harry knew what he was going to do she felt a prickling sensation in her right hand.
"Ow! Bloody hell! What was that for?!" She glared at the offender. He had a needle in his hand and had brought a vial towards her wound. He left the blood to drip inside it and with a salute to his leader went back the way he came from.
Harry cursed under her breath and crossed her arms in front of her. The king meanwhile was laughing at her misfortune. She abstained from leering at him just in case he offended easily.
The process of events since they came to the room finally made sense when the offender of her fury came back but this time with something in his gloved hands.
He approached her and gave it to her.
Harry looked at it and studied it for a few seconds. It was a golden bracelet. It had runes etched in its surface and a glowing red stone incrusted in it. The dwarf made gestures with his hands, and she reluctantly put the object in her left wrist.
"What is this about? Why has this prick just hurt me and now handed me this bracelet…? I don't understand-".
"Ah! It seems Borlir has made it work. It's nice to finally be able to understand each other".
Harry's blood left her face in surprise. When looking at the dwarf named Borlir she saw him grunt and make a face of displeasure. He didn't waste any time and after making a last gesture to his king, left the room and his occupants to talk.
XXX
"Hello, young one. My name is Sigmar Heldenhammer. I'm king here and would like to welcome you to Azyr. You are currently in the Court of the Gods in Highheim".
"Hi." She started hesitatingly "I'm Harry. Harriet Lily Potter. Nice to meet you".
"Nice to meet you too Harry. I apologise on behalf of Borlir. He needed your blood to help make the bracelet you're wearing. It's what enables us to speak and understand each other".
Harry nodded. One problem down. Now she needed to know where the hell she was and how to go back to Earth.
"It's no problem. I really needed it. I don't know how I would be able to go back home if I can't understand any of what the people here say".
"Agreed" Sigmar nodded" I wanted to talk to you so you could help me understand how you are here and where did you came from".
Harry hesitated for a second. She didn't know if she could trust what the man said but his soldiers had saved her life, so she decided to share her knowledge with him.
"It just all started when I with the help of my friends were fighting this evil wizard called Voldemort".
"Wizard? You know magic too?".
"Eeeh… Yeeees…?".
"It's alright Harry. Here we also have people capable of using magic. The bracelet the duardin had crafted for you is also magical in nature".
"Buff! I'm sorry. From where I come from some people don't like magic and usually pursue its users".
"Magic is not the problem here. Just how the people use it" He declared. Harry felt relief wash over her.
"Well, the case is that we were fighting in a place called the Department of Mysteries and we ended up fighting in a room with a weird archway…".
"And this Voldemort. Why did he fight you".
"Apparently he has a grudge with me. When I was a baby he came to my home and killed my parents. The moment he was about to kill me, the spell rebounded on him, and it left me with this scar" At the mention of that, she pointed with her finger at her forehead.
"I'm sorry Harry" He looked at her with sadness and pity.
"It's alright. I didn't knew or remember my parents, so it doesn't feel as bad" She reassured him" Voldemort had since that time tried to kill me because I was the only to be able to stop his reign of terror in my country. He couldn't stand the thought of a baby defeating him".
"Please, continue".
"Well, the case is that during the fight, one group of wizards and witches came to our aid and fought his servants. The headmaster of my school, a powerful wizard named Dumbledore arrived too but was killed".
Sigmar attention was caught at the mention of the headmaster but didn't interrupt her.
"And then something strange happened. The body of the professor fell through the archway and suddenly disappeared!".
"Really…?".
"Really. So, thinking quickly, I tackle Voldemort and push us through the archway too in the hopes of maybe killing us both or transporting us to another location" She said" And the next thing I know, I wake up with my scar bleeding, incapable of using my magic, attacked by ghost, and rescued by golden warriors that speak a language I have never heard before. And that's my story".
"What a curious story. And maybe answer a mystery I had found moments before your arrival." Harry's attention was peaked the moment he said that.
Sigmar approached the girl and towered over her. He put a hand atop her shoulder and guided them outside the chamber.
"You see. A corpse not long before you appeared in Shyish made its way into Azyrheim, and I wonder if you could help me identify it".
A sense of dread filled her chest. Walking through the hallway, the two arrived at a closed room.
Sigmar opened the door and with a hand gesture invited her inside.
Harry felt tears fall from her eyes. Dumbledore's corpse had been situated in a stone table with his eyes closed and his arms crossed atop his chest.
"It's professor Dumbledore…" She declared. He nodded.
"It seems the two of you ended in different places of the Cosmos Arcane when you entered the archway you mentioned. I'm glad I could reunite the two of you. I will leave you to say your goodbyes. Knock on the door when you're finished".
Once said that, the man left the room and closed its doors, leaving the girl to grieve her mentor in peace.