Chronicles of Espiria Season 1

Episode 22 – The Void

Written by The Dude and Stormrider

The next morning, or rather what they deemed as morning, the three priests and their Ya allies continued their journey to the capitol of the Bantus Empire. The journey was graciously uneventful until Ira spotted a small group of Graveborn in the distance.

"Quickly, take cover!" she whispered.

They found cover in the crumbling remains of an old wooden shack. Ira tried to keep an eye on the Graveborn while remaining concealed.

"There are three of them, a man and two children."

"They have taken children?!" Antandra asked, aghast.

"They likely saw it as a sort of mercy," Cecilia said with a growl. "We can expect no better from the walking blasphemies!"

"Can you keep it down?!" Ira said, frustrated with the conversation. "If they hear us, they'll try to kill us, and Graveborn are not easy to kill!"

Vedan, Silvina, and Isabella, meanwhile, were oblivious to the five travelers as they made their way toward home, and likely would have remained oblivious if not for a slight slip by Lucius; while trying to stay hidden per Ira's suggestion, he accidentally cut his hand on an old piece of glass. Moments later, Vedan paused and started sniffing the air.

"What is it, Father?" Silvina asked.

"What do you smell, Father?" Isabella asked.

Vedan breathed deep, then grimaced.

"I smell living blood." he answered.

"Here? In Bantus?!" Isabella asked, shocked at the very idea of a living mortal setting foot within the borders of the empire.

"Who would be mad enough to invade the Bantus Empire?!" Silvina asked, equally shocked.

"They hide in that abandoned house. Let us welcome them, my children."

Vedan and Isabella started walking toward the house at a leisurely pace, knowing that whoever they found would not be able to escape them. Silvina, on the other hand, was not so patient; in the blink of an eye, she vanished from the sight of the travelers and reappeared behind them with knives drawn. All were surprised by her sudden appearance, except for Ira, who was able to track Silvina's lightning fast movements and met her with an arrow pointed at her head when she appeared behind them all. Silvina was surprised, but also impressed.

"What is your purpose in the Bantus Empire, mortals?" Silvina asked as Vedan and Isabella arrived.

"Why should we explain ourselves to abominations?" Cecilia countered.

"Cecilia, please!" Belinda tried to calm everyone. "Perhaps they can answer our questions." Looking to Silvina, Belinda answered, "We are seeking the source of the demon incursions in our lands."

"Demon incursions?" Isabella asked, again surprised. She and Silvina exchanged worried glances, while Vedan hid his surprise behind a practiced aristocratic veneer.

"Tell us about these incursions." Isabella commanded.

As Belinda summarized the situation for Isabella and her family, King Thoran met with the Eldritch Council on a matter of grave importance.

"As you have seen, the living cattle send spies into our land now!" Thoran thundered as the memory of what the Graveborn spy witnessed played out before the council.

"How can it be that we have not seen this report before?" the Council asked in unison. "Lord Quadam sees through the eyes of all Graveborn; this should not have been hidden from us."

"That I cannot answer, but neither is it my concern right now! Spies mean an intent to invade Bantus, which means the cattle have lost their fear of the empire! I ask the Council for permission to invade the lands of the living! Let me remind the humans why they fear the dead!"

The Council was silent for a time before they answered.

"Let us consult with Lord Quadam alone."

As Thoran awaited his answer, Vedan and his girls listened as Belinda finished summarizing the plights of the living. Silvina and Isabella exchanged glances again before responding.

"We have seen these creatures in our lands as well." Silvina began.

"One tried to attack the home of our friend Daimon, and required his family's might and ours to repel." Isabella continued.

"When it failed in its attack, its remains fled from us." Silvina finished.

"Do you know where it went?" Lucius asked.

"It fled to the Mortuary Void." Vedan answered.

"Can you take us there?" Belinda asked.

Silvina and Isabella exchanged frightened glances. Again, Vedan hid his shock behind a practiced aristocratic veneer.

"The Mortuary Void is where one goes when they seek oblivion." Vedan explained. "All else avoid it at all costs. It is a place that even the Graveborn fear."

"Then show us the way and leave us to our fate!" Cecilia interjected, frustrated that they were still conversing with the undead. "If the demons are at all related to the Mortuary Void, then we are bound by the Light to seek it out!"

Silvina and Isabella exchanged concerned looks, then looked to Vedan; he simply nodded.

"If it will prevent another creature from attacking the empire, we will guide you to the Void." Isabella responded at last. "But know that we will by no means approach it."

"That is enough." Belinda responded. "Thank you."

Without another word, Silvina and Isabella began walking in the direction of the Void. The living travelers followed closely, with Vedan bringing up the rear. The living travelers tended to keep a wary eye on their Graveborn guides for fear that they would turn on them if they let their guard down. All except for Belinda; while the others looked on the Graveborn with fear and distrust, she looked on the children with sadness. Isabella noticed this when they stopped to rest and approached her about it.

"There is something different about you." Isabella said to Belinda.

"What do you mean?" Belinda asked.

"You do not seem to fear us as your friends do. When you look on us, you seem sad."

Belinda was silent for a time as she gathered her thoughts.

"When I look at you, I am reminded of many of the children that I know at the temple. I love to teach them, to play with them, to be their big sister. I've watched them grow and mature, and I look forward to seeing them grow up and become strong men and women. But that is something that you and your sister will never know. You will never grow up, never fall in love with a good man, never start a family, never..."

Belinda could speak no more as tears started to fill her eyes. Isabella saw this and tried to comfort Belinda.

"You have a kind heart. But do not mourn for me. When you lay on your deathbed, preparing to face your gods, Silvina and I will still be walking the earth, ageless and immortal. We will mourn your passing. Unless we were to..."

"Please, do not try to resurrect me. When it is my time to die, I will die. I do not fear death as others do, for I know that death brings with it the reward given to the faithful servants of the Light."

"If that is your choice..." Isabella said, a little downcast.

"But there is no reason we cannot be friends now." Belinda offered, hoping to cheer Isabella up.

"There is one reason. If King Thoran commands that we be enemies, I do not know that I could disobey."

"Then I'll just avoid giving him reason to dislike me." Belinda responded lightheartedly.

Belinda and Isabella continued like this until the time came to continue their journey. Silvina watched from a distance, uncomfortable with the human's interest in her sister, but glad to see her sister happy, even briefly. Cecilia was more disapproving.

"She plays with the abomination." Cecilia said with a cross between a sigh and a snarl.

"Cecilia, let her have this." Lucius responded. "She has had no contact with her youth class in such a long time."

"It is written, Lucius, that we are appointed once to die and then face judgment. The Graveborn use necromancy to try to elude that judgment. They are a blasphemy against Dura herself! How can Belinda look on them with anything but disgust?"

Belinda overheard Cecilia's outburst and paused to respond.

"Their lives may be unnatural, but their souls are just as human as ours. They are just as lost and in need of the Light as we once were, and we have no right to deny them the same opportunity to come to the Light."

The debate might have continued, if Isabella hadn't declared, "We have arrived."

Before them was a swirling vortex of darkness suspended over a small depression in the ground. All was deathly still; even the ambient noises of Bantus had fallen silent.

"We can draw no closer." Vedan warned. "The Mortuary Void consumes all, body and soul. Only a madman would be foolish enough to approach it."

"Do you recognize that madman?" Ira asked.

Vedan was confused until Silvina gasped.

"Father, there is someone in front of the Void!"

To the astonishment of the Graveborn, they saw a man seated at the edge of the hole under the Void, swaying back and forth as if to music.

"What is he doing?" Vedan asked, struggling to keep his aristocratic veneer intact.

"I'm ready to ask him." Antandra declaired.

"Please do not. It is dangerous." Isabella pleaded, not wanting Belinda to draw any closer to the Void. Belinda knelt next to Isabella.

"We must go. We must stop the demon incursions, and this is the only lead we have to their origin. I will be careful, I promise."

Isabella glanced at Silvina and Vedan.

"If you must go, then let me protect you."

"Isabella..." Silvina began.

"She is a nice lady," Isabella responded, "I don't want her to die forever."

"Then let me protect you." Silvina countered.

"Of course. And nice lady will protect you."

Silvina and Isabella hugged, then led the group toward the Void. Before they got far, Lucius noticed that Vedan was not moving.

"Are you not coming?" Lucius asked him.

"Of course not!" he answered, almost offended by the question, "I value my life too much to risk it in approaching the Void."

"But your children..."

"They call me 'father' because they find it more palatable than calling me 'master', but they will never be my children."

Lucius turned from him, shocked and disgusted by Vedan's cowardice, and ran to catch up to the others, pausing only to hear one last request from Vedan.

"That being said, if you can bring Isabella back to me alive, I will make it worth your while."

Lucius turned to him and responded, "They will return to you if it is the will of the Celestials." He turned again and ran to catch up to the others.

As the group drew nearer to the man under the Void, Cecilia and Ira could hear that the man was muttering something as he swayed. Neither could understand him, but Cecilia thought the language sounded familiar. Soon they were close enough to see him clearly. He was most certainly Graveborn from the gangrenous state of his skin, dressed in a tattered cape and a well preserved pair of pants. Where his head should have been was a cylinder of unknown material, glowing with necromantic light. A strange wand sat at his side, with the appearance of two intertwining lightning bolts originating from a Graveborn eye. As the group gazed on the man, trying to comprehend him, he suddenly picked up the wand and rose to his feet, turning to face them. Three Graveborn eyes were carved into the "head", each one blinking and glancing about independently.

"This is unexpected. Not only have the Graveborn dared to approach the Mortuary Void, but they have brought priests of the Light."

"Who are you?" Lucius demanded.

"What are you?" Antandra asked under her breath.

"In life, my name was Oden Marwen. Many counted me among the greatest mages the Church had ever produced. That is, until my private research put me at odds with church doctrine. I sought a way to counter the magic of the Graveborn, but that required an in-depth understanding of necromancy. In time, the Path of Ascension found out about my research. They neither knew nor cared what it was for; they only knew that I was studying necromancy, a capital crime, and so I was turned over to be beheaded.

"But I was no fool; I knew that my work would be misunderstood by the Church, so to ensure that my work would continue, I hid a device here, near the Mortuary Void, to capture my soul and keep it safe until my body could be resurrected. That device now serves as my head."

"How could you be certain that you would be resurrected?" Ira asked.

"I was well known in my time; the necromancers of Bantus would consider a skilled mage like me a handsome prize. But as I awaited my rescue, I began to hear voices. I feared that I had made some error in my spells and I was slowly going mad, until I realized that the voices were not in my head, but originated from the Void."

"The Void? There is something alive in there?!" Silvina asked.

"The Graveborn believe the Mortuary Void to be an endless stomach, swallowing and destroying anything that approaches it, even souls. In reality, it is a gateway to another world, one which only a spirit can pass through. It is a realm that Espiria has seen once before, when it was created by Dura herself as a prison for the children of Annih."

Belinda gasped. "The Hypogean Realm! This is how the demons bypass the Barred Gate!"

Oden continued. "Only a spirit can pass through this gateway, but if the Barred Gate were flung open, they could enter Espiria in their natural state, as flesh and bone."

"Then that is their hope," Cecilia said. "They enter Espiria as fleshless demons, then possess people to do their bidding. Once they have enough slaves, they will march on the Barred Gate and try to open it."

"Then our first task is to close this Void so that no more demons can seep through." Lucius concluded. "How can it be done, Oden?"

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that." Oden answered.

The others glanced back and forth at each other as realization set in. Belinda alone held out hope that he had a good reason for not sealing the Void.

"But you know what will happen if the Hypogeans return!"

"I do, priestess. But as I sat in the shadow of the Void, listening to the children of Annih pull against their chains, I came to realize why Annih made them in the first place. Dura was never the pure, sinless goddess that we all took her to be. She created us, after all, a race of people that knows nothing better than how to sin. We steal, we kill, we destroy! No sinless goddess could be responsible for such hopelessly evil creatures as we are! Annih realized what Dura had unleashed on this world, and determined that the only good course of action, the only hope for peace in this world, was to purge that evil from the face of Espiria! The Hypogeans are no evil plague; they are our just punishment! And we have postponed our reckoning long enough!"

"And I have postponed your death long enough!" Antandra shouted as she charged at Oden.

Ira began firing arrows at Oden, Antandra dodging them as they flew past her. The arrows did no real harm to his Graveborn body, but that wasn't their purpose; they were meant to distract Oden so that Antandra could slay him more easily. The plot nearly worked, but at the last moment, Oden opened a portal in front of Antandra, sending her straight into the ground at full running force. As she lay on the ground dazed, Oden let out an ear-splitting shriek. Soon, a group of Graveborn soldiers emerged from the ground and charged at the group.

"These Graveborn are possessed by demons!" Cecilia shouted.

Before the priests could attack, Isabella pointed in the center of the small army. As her eyes flashed, most of the soldiers turned to a gangrenous powder, leaving the demons within with no host to fight with. The disembodied demons were easily dispatched by Belinda's holy lightning, while the few soldiers that remained intact were destroyed by Lucius' poleaxe and Cecilia's knives.

Meanwhile, Silvina kept Oden on the defensive while Ira used her arrows to keep him distracted. Finally, Silvina mistakenly backed away enough for Oden to open another portal, which spewed black lightning at Silvina, knocking her backward and dazing her. Oden turned his attention toward Ira, but before he could strike her, Lucius and Cecilia took their swipes at him. Oden dodged and backed away, forcing Cecilia to leap at him. Oden used another portal to send Cecilia crashing into Belinda. As Belinda and Cecilia struggled to get back up, Lucius raised his shield just in time to block another volley of lightning from Oden's portals, which pushed him back and made him trip over Antandra's still dazed body.

Antandra finally shook off her daze and charged at Oden again, this time assaulting him with a furious volley of swipes with her spear which he only barely was able to dodge. As Antandra readied another volley, Oden raised his wand and surrounded her with necromantic energy, which drained her energy and left her exhausted. He prepared another volley of lightning for Antandra, but it was thrown off course by a sudden energy blast from Isabella, which hit him in the head and knocked it off center. Oden took a moment to readjust his head, though it looked difficult for him. Ira noticed this and got an idea. She pulled out three of her metal crossbow bolts and started moving into a better position while Belinda and Cecilia rejoined the fight.

Belinda cast a series of orbs of holy light at Oden while Cecilia charged him with her knives. Oden struck Cecilia with necromantic energy, though it didn't effect Cecilia as it affected Antandra because Belinda's light interrupted him. Cecilia took a moment to recover while Belinda continued her assault, with Lucius and Silvina rejoining the fight. Oden summoned more lightning for Lucius and Silvina, which Lucius blocked with a holy shield. Lucius grimaced as the lightning hit, feeling the lightning in his arm this time. Once the lightning abated, Silvina leaped on Oden and started stabbing him. The knife wounds did no real harm, except that she managed to knock his wand out of his hand.

This was the moment Ira was waiting for. She quickly drew back the crossbow bolts as far as she dared without breaking the bow and unleashed them at Oden's three eyes as soon as Silvina was thrown out of the way. The force of the bolts striking the head pushed it off Oden's shoulders, leaving the body sluggish and uncoordinated. The head, meanwhile, began to roll into the depression, and was soon caught up in the gravity well of the Mortuary Void. As it swirled into the Void, his eyes could be seen glaring defiantly at the group that had finally bested him.

"You think that casting me into Dura's prison will save you? Your doom already marches against you! Nothing can stop the cleansing of Espiria!"

As Oden's head vanished from sight, the body stumbled and fell into the Void as well. Belinda helped Cecilia to her feet while Lucius helped Antandra to hers. Isabella knelt next to the dazed Sylvina and tried to help her up.

"So is it over? Can we all go home now?" Ira asked, eager to leave Bantus.

"Not quite." Cecilia answered, still weak from Oden's assault. "You heard Oden before he disappeared. Our doom is on the march."

"What did he mean by that?" Lucius asked.

"Oh no!" Belinda cried out, suddenly realizing what Cecilia was implying. "That screech before the battle! All the demons that we have yet to find have been ordered to march on the Barred Gate! They will try to throw it open and release their brethren!"

"We will inform King Thoran of what we have seen here." Isabella said. "Go and stop the demon hoard."

Isabella helped Silvina to her feet and, together, returned to Vedan so they could warn Thoran about the potential Hypogean invasion. The rest of the group, though still recovering from the fight with Oden, ran back to the border of Bantus so they could make their way to the site of the Barred Gate. As they crossed the border and mounted their horses, Ira whispered a warning on the wind, hoping it would reach the ears of the Wind Whisperers in time.

"Arden, ready the Dusk Patrol! The Barred Gate is under attack! I repeat, the Barred Gate is under attack!"