My hand reached for my beloved, his worn sunken cheek. The fell energies of the Gods themselves fester in his body, as much as my flame tries to burn it and as many hours as I spend tending it is not enough. My God, my saviour and the most glorious contender has not risen from his prison. His voice does echo in my dreams, I hear his forge echo tirelessly in these lonesome nights. Miraculous salves, armours to deflect even the most vile magics cast by the Gods themselves, but alas, these are but dreams and I remain alone in this strange land.
The door to my chamber opens, it is the high priest of the Old ones. Maleen Shadowfist. The wonderful Ancients are creatures of an earlier age, Maleen is preparing for his ascension become an oracle still which makes him walk amongst us lesser folk still. The towering priest was twice as tall as the tallest mortal man and just as wide. His wonderous scaly skin reflected the dim light inside my chamber while white pained eye lay on my companion. The ancients smooth, almost featureless body was like that of a statue, a pale blue with long hands that almost stretched to the ground. In the hands of the priest lay a worn bronze staff, his focus of power.
"Child, does he wake?" Not wasting a moment, I found myself on my knees.
"Nay, the fates are truly cruel!" Cruel they were, my sweet Peter forced to such a form.
"Rise, he shall be rewarded with the Bramble of spring in a fortnight at most. Simply care for the benefactor of the Old Folk and the children." The prayer of stone came to mind, the prayer of rebirth and the prayer of death. Two of these were the one's he deserved for his duty and the mere thought of the last brought dread onto my weary heart.
"Thank you my lord, that is great news indeed! What of my visit to the village to the south?" I inquired.
"The man shall go with you once he can walk. He should not perish with a simple walk no?" The booming voice of the elder replied.
"And the war party? How many do I bring? What of the spies, have they met with foes in these strange lands?" I asked.
"The lands are empty! Both wonderous news and concerning as this land is large, larger than any we've seen or heard of. There does lay a city far to the southeast, it is unlike any we've seen made out of steel and glass and spanning over untold miles. However, it is of little concern for these men can make little progress in their magical contraptions." And so I've heard, carriages of steel held by no beast of burden. "As for the men you shall bring a dozen Defenders joined by forty footmen." A pitiful number back in the old homes, but seemingly enough for this seemingly empty world. For a year we laid in wait, for a year I waited for my beloved.
"Thank you lord, may The Titan ascend the thrones!" His lordship simply waved at me and left.
"Hah, so, the big guy came." A low groggy voice said at my side. My hand landed on his black shaggy hair.
"He will bring the Bramble my dear within two weeks, isn't it wonderful?" He slowly rose up, his skinny, scarred arms weakly moved with him. The pantokrator of this world had fallen two years ago in rebellion against his tyranny, and my beloved was forced to flee, a tale much like our own.
"Yeah, uh Ziki, you're leaving tomorrow?" My arms grabbed him around his waist and my lips brushed his ear.
"Come with me my dear. They shouldn't pose a threat, you can be a herald of the Ancient ones to your people." A pair of arms gently went along my legs as he began to sink deeper into my embrace.
"I'm not sure I'm herald material, shouldn't one of you guys do it? Yeah, if what you said was accurate, a village of a few dozen won't fight back, not with a whole ass lair in the side of the mountain glaring at them." He gave out a tired chuckle, it wasn't hunger, likely the disease eating away at his body. Radiation he called it. It sounded like a godly malaise, but they used it for power. Power that I did not understand either as it was captured thunder.
"Everyone learns, even our greatest heroes began somewhere." As I moved away from his warm body he let out a soft disappointed groan. "Will you join me?" I went over to the table where his food lay, stalk mushroom bread, potatoes and pondberries.
"I would love to, a walk sounds nice." He accepted the tray of food, another groan, he did not like the mushroom bread. He often said it tasted like cardboard, it sounded like some ration of this world.
"Eat so you don't collapse tomorrow my dear." A smile crept onto my face as he stuffed his face and as I traced it, it just grew wider. "I have to meet the men." I slowly left his chambers into the poorly lit halls. It didn't bother me much, us Argathian men and women were at home in the dark. We worked best in the absence of light.
The halls of the keep were mostly empty as it was was on the outer side of the mountain. Most of the commoners were in the caverns and outside fields as we made sure that the outsides were safe, safer than the old world with it's lack of unknown dangers that lurked in the unknown corners.
Our walls weren't opulent, we were an outer colony in an unknown land. It was safe to say that they did not plan on sending any Oracles this way until their safety could be ensured. The wars on the Homefront were an endless, bloody affair. A month without war in this land was a breath of fresh air.
"Mistress!" A man hailed me with his sword drawn to the sky as I left. He was one of the newcomers from across the gate. "The diplomatic core is ready." The 'core' was a group of fifty, ten Pale ones Defenders in their plate armour armed with a heather shield and sword. The rest were simple soldiers sparsely armoured with steel, a full set of leather and a basic shield. They trained together and were likely preparing for the ranged weapons of this world that were apparently numerous as the Pale ones threw rocks at the men.
"Are the scouts back?" The Pale ones nodded in my direction while the soldiers
"One is, the rest were ordered down south, into the Steel city." The golden city that stretched as far as the eye could see, it sounded like a lie no matter how many times I've heard it. My dearest described it and it sounded like a fairy tale.
"Where is he? In the caverns or the barracks?" The midday sun was not easy on my eyes and skin that were used to the dark halls of our homes.
"A tavern by the fields. He's not a son of the caverns." Foreigners as spies were useful, they didn't look like us, pale and with red eye.
"I will meet him then, come with me and bring someone else." He yelled towards a man on the training field and went down the main poorly paved road towards the open gate that led outside. Peasants could be seen moving around. Most were blonde, pale or tanned and red eyed. A scant few had neither of these qualities. Sun wasn't the kindest on us, we only took ones that could tolerate it. The men at the gate greeted me, but I simply moved beyond them. They held crossbows, an import from faraway realms.
The road leading out the keep was made out of reinforced earth, likely made by the few Earth readers assigned to us. It wasn't long before the fields came into view, potatoes mostly, some cattle and a myriad of local plants that the mages were testing.
"Mistress, excuse my ignorance, are you planning on launching an attack on the village?" The other man that followed us asked.
"No, not if they submit. Why?" He ran up to my side.
"The others wonder if we will see war by summer." It wasn't in the plans, not until next winter at the very least.
"We shouldn't unless some other party attacks, the Golden city for one. Other settlements are minor at best." The thought sent me to grasp the fire and earth gems in my pocket.
"We are a minor force as well." His assumption was correct. Two hundred soldiers at most to defend our lands.
"Our homelands are just behind the gate, if need be we will get the aid of an oracle. A land this clean could be our salvation if some other God grasps the thrones of ascension." This wasn't something I was fully confident in, while magic gems were present, they weren't overly abundant as we've discovered. However, the untapped population and farmable land far exceeded that of our own world.
"But we've heard that these people have killed their god." A horrid truth, one that was hard to grasp.
"They killed a weak pretender, Gods come back once killed. There is not even a murmur of this Scion waking." I paused for a moment, the Titan woke from eternal imprisonment, Gods are not killed by lesser men.
"That's the tavern. The Hidden Toad." A small roadside attraction is what it was. Made out of stone and two stories high. It was unassuming outside the small blue and red toad smoking a pipe next to the entrance. It looked like any other home you would find in Agartha.
The door leading inside was of poor make. The metal hinges were better made. The tavernkeeper was an older man with snow like skin and black hair.
"Mistress, what brings you here?" The man asked.
"The scout, Ugal, is he here?" My eyes scanned across the poorly lit tavern. There were a few people inside, all minding their own business.
"Here ma'am." He was a table or two away from the entrance, around the middle of the room. His skin was tan as were his eyes. His hair was long and light brown, akin to that of a chestnut. I quickly moved his way and sat down at the table. On his body was a drab brown cloak.
"You're the Cave captain?" He puffed a smoke of some strange and elegant looking stick. It smelled like woodleaf.
"Zikira the Worldwalker." He offered me one, but I waved it away.
"Ah, the one who brought us here. Good place you know, gold goes a long way in these parts." He took a puff. "So, the village. Well, for one they're poor, yet wear better cloth than most of us. The colours of their pants and jackets are more vibrant than those of the T'ien Ch'i. They also traded a lot of foodstuffs for our gold. We have quite some cattle now." His words bored. This was all already known.
"Their army?" I impatiently questioned.
"None, some knives and farming implements. They did have the rumoured boomsticks, however we had not seen them work. Most of them looked like finely crafted artefacts out of a black metal that fit in one hand. A few were held with both however." He sipped his drink out of a finely crafted glass bottle with unknown letters and pictures on it. Translation spell I had been given was not useful for foreign writing. "Their arms were lacking however, a mere ten of these 'guns' were in their hands. Their total population stood at sixty two nights ago." I got a pouch from my bag. It contained twenty irons and two silvers. He peer inside with little curiosity. "A great payment for a simple job my lady." He lazily emptied the contents into a bag that lay next to his feet. It looked strange, like one my beloved brought to the keep, yet smaller. A result of trade with the locals no doubt. I got up and made my way to the exit. The sun assaulted my senses. I had to return to my love and prepare for battle.
