Session 254 - Part Three
Each Final Flourish
In Trekhom, Rumdoom appeared triumphant before the astonished crowds, many of whom had been (or, to their mind, still were) his adherents. He had already given up on the idea of leading people but couldn’t help the temptation, here and now, to launch ‘Rumschatology Mark II’.
When he spoke, he wasn’t sure whether he was resisting the temptation or giving in to it. “You’re free. Now do whatever the naughty word you want. But hurry up about it, because you don’t have much time.”
There was a huge, deep, dwarven roar from the crowd. Oddly, many of the people began embracing one another, embraces which became passionate, and eventually, naked.
While all this was going on, Rumdoom turned to look at Vlendham Heid. The old philosopher looked back at him with tears in his eyes. Yet another proponent of the Heid Eschatol had embraced nihilism, and it was more than he could bear. He didn’t need to say anything, it was written in his eyes – the journey that began in the lecture theatre with Damata Griento had come to a bad ending, at least for Vlendham Heid.
In response to this unspoken reproach, Rumdoom raised his hammer and held it threateningly over Vlendham, as if he intended to strike him. The old dwarf’s eyes flinched and he began to raise his hands, but then lowered them again. Kvarti, Heid’s some-time bodyguard looked aghast, but apart from that did not react. Then Rumdoom lowered his hammer.
“What did he do to deserve that?” asked Kvarti.
“It’s not about
him! It’s about
me!” bellowed Rumdoom.
*
The duplicant in Alais Primos collapsed, became a heap of mesh, then took on Leon’s form and rose again. Aulus Auticus watched him as he stood and said, “You lot seem to be spread very thin.”
Leon knew that the hivemind in Alais Primos still needed to be dealt with, so he teleported with Atticus close to the Cathedral of Triegenes. Rahu Ketu, his spirit familiar, ranged ahead, and saw Morgan Cippiano among the dominated faithful, who had been forced to dismantle the greatest symbol of their faith.
Arch Secula Degaspare was surrounded by bookpin bodyguards, and regular defence squads kept watch throughout the whole area. They needed to take the Arch Secula out fast.
Leon teleported close to the woman, noticing that his arcane powers were rendered more clumsy and complicated to cast in her proximity – she seemed to radiate an aura of disbelief in all things supernatural. Nevertheless, he began to bombard her with curse after curse, conscious that he lacked the means to dislodge the ghost councillors. At once, her bodyguards formed a tight circle around her and raised their shields. Aulus Atticus crashed straight through them, and began pounding Degaspare with his radiant fists, but she and the council were too strong for him.
Now the city guards opened fire. Only Atticus’ golden armour and Leon’s Stance of the Paper Wind enabled them to fight on. (Leon wondered how he had come to know this stance, and figured it must have been somewhere in the Gyre…)
The Arch Secula responded with a mechanised shotgun, magical commands to submit to the Obscurati and – at length, in desperation, when Leon sealed her mouth – a mere dagger. But their fight had become desperate. Sooner or later, they would succumb to her massed defenders if they could not release her from the ghost council’s grip.
Then Leon got lucky. He cast a
nightmare spell on Degaspare – a spell which took the form of whatever its target feared most. Whatever the ghost councillors saw must have terrified them utterly, as they cried aloud as one and fled. Degaspare – already dead, kept going only by their spectral puppetry – collapsed.
Her defeat caused the bubble of the hivemind to burst. At once, the city militia and dominated faithful set upon the bookpin bodyguards savagely.
But Leon called for calm and prevented further bloodshed. He told them that he and the other allies of King Baldrey of Risur, having saved Alais Primos twice, would now go to Axis Island and save the world. They could help, he said, with their prayers, which the Ob had sought to silence.
*
When Cula Ravjahani fell limp at the hands of the goddess reborn, that spectacle alone was sufficient to free those in the Ob’s great army who were dominated by the hivemind.
The rest of Ravjahani’s immediate cohort were beset and swiftly massacred by Athrylla Valanar and her rajputs. Before they finished the job, Gupta sought a means to weed out other Ob loyalists, subjecting one of Ravjahani’s companions to a terrifying dual vision of the falls of Srasma. All those allied to her suffered a psychic attack and, across the Ob front line, perhaps one in a hundred or fewer fell to their knees in fear and agony.
“See how easily this new world comes asunder, and our enemies fall to their knees?” boomed Gupta. Her words carried to everyone; she knew at once everyone who was there – the tired, frightened citizens of Sentosa; the thousands of colonist massed by the Ob; and, still hidden in the jungle, waiting to strike in defence of Sentosa – in what would have been a suicidal gesture at best – the Children of Hewanharimau, led by Betronga and Sokana Rel. She sensed the thrill of young Talios Valanar, the weretiger scout who had first led them to Ingatan’s Refuge, and now saw that one of the heroes she had helped had become an eladrin goddess! (Gupta also instinctively knew that young Talios was a distant relative of Athrylla.)
Gupta was able to use the strange bond she felt for all those around her, to impart an ideal. She asked for their prayers in the fight to come, then said, “Once the battle has ended, we will sit down with those who were once our foes. This is what I have learned from Baldrey Korrigan.”
*
Conquo extracted the Crown of Ber from pulpy mess of Bruse Shantus’ head, wiped it off a bit and handed it to Korrigan. Korrigan accepted it with all due ceremony, but held it at arms’ length, for fear of any misunderstandings.
Glaucia said, “To Corta Nariz, perhaps?”
“Is that that nice orc lady?” asked Conquo.
“It is!” replied Damata Griento, from a makeshift platform at the centre of the square. “She is being held in the prison, along with many of our brothers and sisters! Let us go and free ourselves fully from the yolk of the Ob!”
There were whoops and cries, as Damata lept down to lead them, but his panache was somewhat compromised when Glaucia grabbed him by the scruff of his cape. “If you try to turn this to your advantage,” she said, “I will beat you until you do not need a mask to conceal your face. That being our understanding, please… continue.”
Korrigan and Conquo followed along in the wake of the crowd and oversaw the peaceful emancipation of the prisoners, including Corta Nariz, Melissa Amerie and the half-giant Roderigo.
Corta Nariz was grateful to be free. She had been on business here in Seobriga when the hivemind formed, and was swiftly incarcerated by the Bruse, who had long begrudged her popularity. “I learned while imprisoned that my poor father took his own life, rather than hand over control of our citadel to the Bruse. It was a brave death; his health was failing.”
Korrigan turned to the crowd and asked, “Do the people of Ber wish for Corta Nariz to be their Bruse?”
The crowd was unanimous in its approval. Korrigan placed the crown upon her head, and Conquo handed her Shantus’ ceremonial greatsword. “Be better than that other one,” he said. “And don’t bite people. It’s rude.”
Korrigan raised himself aloft and said to the people of Seobriga, “Once again, Ber has fought and won its freedom. We now go to fight for the freedom of the whole world!”
*
As soon as he was freed from the ghost council, Pemberton reverted to his human form. He was angry; very angry. Pardo cowered. Pemberton ordered his gnolls to decimate themselves as punishment for their weakness. “You, Pardo, must lose an ear.”
Pardo bowed and sniggered and scuttled off to do his bidding. Pemberton turned to Uru and said. “I’ll wait for them to get started, then I’ll call a halt. I’m not a monster. Thank you, lad, for plucking me out of that predicament. I’m indebted to you, and gratified to have backed the right horse. Now kindly bring me up to speed.”
Uru told Pemberton everything that had happened since their last meeting. Pemberton was duly impressed.
“So you took out old Inacht, huh? Didn’t think I’d live to see the day. Makes me the last of the dragon tyrants. Must be sure not to go getting myself killed. Which brings me to what I was about to say when we last met, before I was so rudely interrupted. I have been busy preparing for your return, and I have the means for us to surprise the Obscurati.”
He gestured expansively, activating some distant control mechanism, which caused huge teleportation circles to light up along the floor and walls of the hangar.
“Give the codes to your captain, and bring the Coaltongue right here. We’ll fix her up in no time. Better yet, the Ob will be expecting you to come from the South, not from deep in the archipelago.”
*
“Whenever we meet, one of us is in chains,” said Quratulain. Ashima-Shimtu released her, lifting her off the tracks and high above the concerned, curious faces of the crowd and especially the Ob.
Ashima-Shimtu could not understand the bond she felt with this mortal, and said as much. Quratulain, for her part, felt the parallels were evident, and said as much too. Ashima-Shimtu wanted to know how Quratulain had thrived, having gained her freedom, for she had found it hard:
“Centuries in a prison, and Ashima-Shimtu only attempted escape once. Surely she was a perfect prisoner. Her will was restrained, so what could she do but obey the Clergy and meditate on her sins. She meditated on the Clergy’s sins as well. She had known Triegenes. He was a man of true light. But Ashima-Shimtu never saw the world he promised.
“No, she saw everything break and fall. She…pulled, she thrashed at her chains. She wept until the bleeding left her too weak to resist. She refused her identity, so she could believe all that pain was happening to someone else. But she doesn’t deserve pity. Even a prisoner, Ashima-Shimtu was selfish. She was filled with malice, but when she tried to take revenge, all she achieved was just to make sure she did not bleed alone.
“But that was someone else, she told herself. Except there was no self left to tell. “She could not be free. She was forbidden the choice even to die.
“Finally, finally her chains broke. She crawled out into a world without a sun. She believed she could do whatever she desired. Wretched, dragging her chains with her, she yearned for the old villainy.
“But she cannot! She…
I cannot!
“Triegenes promised all could be redeemed. I thought I’d changed. But now I feel it, in the air. I cannot choose. I must do what… what they say is right! There’s no temptation to overcome, so how can I be redeemed? If this is freedom, it’s worse than the chains ever were.
“It is worse a lie than any ever told by Ashima-Shimtu, and I will tell it no more! I don’t want this false freedom. If it’s the only choice I am granted, give me death.”
Quratulain shrugged. “Like you I decided to try to do ‘good’. Even more so now that I am carrying a child. But I am only doing good for myself, not for anyone else. Though I try to do things for others, I’m still the same bitch. We kill people and impose our will on others. But if you kill a million bastards, there’s still a million bastards running around.”
Strangely, this – more than any argument about the world being controlled by the Ob, and not a world for freewill to flourish in – had the desired effect on the demoness.
“Very well. I will help you do what you must here; but I won’t break my promise to the Mastermind, and will stay here, to see who wins. If you are right, it will be you.”
“Hopefully, we will see each other when all this is over,” said Quratulain.
Then to the two devils descended upon Gardienne du Cherage and made short work of her and her allies.
End of Session
