Orphan At The Edge Of The World

To stoke himself enough to break out of it, Orison slipped the leash on some of his rage. The edges of his sight became red tinged and the ethereal axe in his hand grew into a two-handed variety. Throwing caution to the wind, he drew on the stored magic in his body to give him a burst of speed and flew into them like a whirling Dervish.

Once, twice, three time he chopped through the front line. Two shades and a guardian spirit collapsed and flowed into his s.p.a.ce. Twice he avoided the swipes of the remaining guardian before the elder had him retreating as the two ghosts flowed towards him like an incoming flood. Any hope for backup was pointless as Gan faced two shades that had rounded the corner behind them. Much earlier they had discovered that stopping to catch a breath was a mistake and now they were boxed in.

Knowing it was trading a bad idea to avoid a worse situation, Orison used his telekinesis to boomerang the axe through the elder twice before it smacked back into his hand, raising another two shades to join the fray before he exhausted his bodily stored magic for one more whirlwind. After that, things weren"t clear anymore. Beta calmly a.n.a.lyze that Orison had taken down the elder and guardian spirit but they had been pinned long enough for two more shades to join the two brought about by Orison"s telekinetic desperation move.

For a short time, he felt himself staggering to someone else"s guiding hand. Suddenly pushed to the side, Orison slammed into a wall and toppled down. Due more to coincidence than anything else, the young mage flopped into a weak shocking trap. The beast that lay under his skin stirred sluggishly but it had been just enough to return some clarity to his thoughts. Looking up at his bedraggled companions, he pushed past the jelly feeling in his knees to pick up the silver sword that Gan had just dropped due to a guardian spirit s.n.a.t.c.hing the last of the scout"s stamina.

With a clumsy and amateurish war cry of his own, Orison hacked at the guardian spirit until it was down. Some inner quality of his cry, mundane as it might have been, stirred something in Emris. The Draconos bellowed one of his own but what came out wasn"t just sound, it was fire. It didn"t matter that a couple more shades were sp.a.w.ned from the siphoned energy because they just burned with the rest.

The air seemed to clear long enough for Orison to pull out an amphora and despite his revulsion, took a swig of b.l.o.o.d.y vigor before dumping some on Gan"s face and splashing the rest at Rithus. As much as it helped, it hadn"t been the best of ideas. Six or seven more shades came around the bend at once but Rithus was just coherent enough to grab up Duran who"d ran out of endurance at some point while Orison had been elder spirit mind f***ed.

Emris grabbed his wife and Ivan took the sword out of Orison"s hand, propelling the young mage after Emris as he hefted up Gan. Likely with the last bit of energy that he had, Gan shouted to turn left at a spot where two more shades were instead of heading straight down an empty corridor with the small army of shades right behind them. By unspoken agreement, both Emris and Rithus bodily rammed through the shades, staggering and almost falling down in the process.

Orison shuddered as he stumbled along behind them. He could see the corrosion of vitality that the two Draconos had endured to brute force their way through. Stumbling, staggering and dragged, every last one of them entered a pitch black room that suddenly flared into eye torturing brightness. The shades that had swarmed Ivan backed up enough for the Nunos man and Gan to fall into the radius of light before Orison pulled them in a couple more feet as he fell onto his backside with a loud thud.

A few seconds of indulged hysterical laughter and a few squeezed out tears of relief later for those who were simply too weak to do much else, a nimbus of purifying light surrounded them. With her magic back, Emily made short work of getting everyone into a basic state of coherence and mobility. Done with her healing duties, she walked to the very edge of what was safe and looked out to the thick presence of shades just beyond its border.

With wet eyes and trembling voice, she said, "Daddy, I don"t know if you"re out there but I love you and miss you so much. I have a baby girl now and a husband who spoils her like you used to do for me. There isn"t a day that goes by I don"t think about you. All the happiness I have now was because you gave everything you had so I could. It hu... It hurts so much to think you"re stuck in this place."

Duran"s uncertain look settled into one of resolve.

Rithus stepped in front of him and said, "What you"re about to try, is it the best thing for her?"

Duran shook his head. "Not the best but better."

Rithus sighed and said, "Obsidian is better than metal.���

Duran stored the ore in his hands away as Rithus pulled out a large handful of obsidian sand and synthesized it into a placard. Duran accepted it and walked up to Emily.

"What"s your father"s name?" the boy asked.

Not looking up, between sobs she said, "William."

After etching the name onto the placard, he said, "Do and say as I do and say. You need to mean it." Kneeling, Duran released a weak wave of spirit as he intoned, "Ancestor William, we honor you and invoke you to dwell within this shrine..."

Emris asked Orison, "What is your friend having my wife do?"

Orison said, "He"s leading her through a ritual to inter her father"s spirit so that they can bring it out of this place. The culture that the ritual came from were ancestor worshipers... I have my reservations on how much I believe a shade to be the person who gave birth to it but, at the very least, your wife won"t have to agonize over her father"s spiritual remains being used to murder people.

"If she decides to purify it after she leaves, then so be it but if she decides to enshrine the placard, I"d suggest you build a shrine shelter or tomb a good distance away from your house. Someplace private and peaceful would be best. It"s probably not a good idea to let others have easy access to it. Without the presence of family, enshrined spirits can be unpredictably hostile to unfamiliar faces."

A little nervously, Emris said, "There"s a lot more than one going into that little gla.s.s thing."

Orison shrugged. "Parts of William could be in them or some of the shades are resonating with the call. I imagine many people who have fallen in here came with the intention of making a better future for their family. Whatever the case, it won"t take long for there to only be one."

The young mage walked over and examined the only structure in the bright room, a throne-like seat carved out of gold veined marble. Aside from a slight touch of roughness at it corners, the seat was otherwise pristine with the majority of its surface still polished to a shine.

Ivan joined him. "So it"s a seat of ascension. Every single one of them is supposed to be nearly impossible to reach."

Orison scoffed. "No offense, but we aren"t the strongest or best prepared group. How could it be that hard?"

The Nunos man looked at Orison oddly. "This place only allows one Chosen and their retainer or a single Child at a time. We didn"t just cheat a little."

Orison looked at the seat. "Okay, I see your point. Does that mean that only one of us can sit in it? Is there any benefit for a Chosen to do so?"

Ivan said, "Well, there have been accounts of someone surviving long enough to have met another while still trying to find the seat. For all intents and purposes, if you reach this room, you can sit. As for your second question...

"There"s three uses total. If used as a self bestowal, a Child can become Chosen and a Chosen can double their active time for learning and resp.a.w.ns. You can take the challenge as a proxy as well, designating someone else for the benefit. Lastly, you can force another Chosen to take the challenge or they will be downgraded to a third generation of The Children and become sterile... Oh, only a royal can challenge another royal, just in case you were thinking of getting back at that Sek prince."

Orison shook his head. "Even if I could, I wouldn"t. If I get real beef with the Sek Royal family, I"d rather take revenge in ways that can"t be traced back to me. Mr. Emir Ghanem, however, is about to have a really bad day. I"d choose your uncle for s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with me but I"m not a royal. It might be a way for you to smooth a path back out with your grandmother."

Ivan sighed. "I won"t do it for her but I will for my sister... We might want to wait until everyone is ready. We get transported out as soon as we"re done from what I understand. Considering what we"re about to do, it might not be safe for any of us to be alone for a little while."

Rithus, who had been patiently waiting for a turn to ask questions, said. "How does this proxy choice work? What happens if it"s an old person or a person who has already pa.s.sed away?"

Ivan racked his brain. "I don"t know for sure. I don"t think Osomo allows anyone not in the registry to be designated for anything. When someone dies permanently, they"re removed from the registry. As for older persons, it probably depends how old? Nothing bad will happen."

Once Duran and Emily had finished up, Orison prompted Ivan to tell them what he"d shared about the seat. It didn"t take long for everyone to figure out what they wanted to do with the exception of the married couple who had to debate what was best for a few minutes until they figured it out. Rithus suggested that the married couple should go first so that they could have a small head start on getting home and finding a safe place to be before the curious and ill intent could call on them.

Emris came up to Orison and initiated a hand clasp, acting somewhat mysterious. "Things may change greatly before we meet again, my friend. Whatever those changes bring, know that I will remember what you"ve done for my family." Seeing Ivan"s irritated expression, the Draconos man laughed and added, "You as well friend Ivan, all of you have my thanks for insuring our safety."

As Emris sat on the marble throne, he designated himself and Emily designated their daughter. Once done, instead of automatically being enveloped in a curtain of light like Emris had, she was prompted to create a message which pinged on all Chosen"s screens in the region. Apparently, completing Listless Corridor and selflessly granting the benefit to someone else was praiseworthy.

Her actions also earned her daughter a special t.i.tle called "Three Generations of Valor". Once her daughter reached majority, the girl would be considered by Osomo to be a full Chosen capable of giving rise to three generations of her own and the t.i.tle would grant the girl an extra three years of active status. Under the t.i.tle would be the message of a mother"s love and hope for her child that the region was seeing now.

There may not be a hard time limit in the room but Orison noticed that the light was slowly dimming. With that brought to everyone"s attention, people started moving with purpose rather than leisurely taking their time. Ivan"s message of payback was short and sweet but due to him being a n.o.ble, the whole world of Chosen got to read that one. Gan also went for a selfless proxy but Orison didn"t recognize the name.

Rithus did similar but the message was a little accidentally suggestive in a way that had Orison feeling childish for chuckling. "*****, thank you. Your berries were extra tasty BECAUSE they were a little overripe. I hope to have them again."

Stonily, Duran said, "I"m not using it. I"ll follow you out."

Orison shrugged and sat down, composing his message. "Emir, you shouldn"t have sent that a.s.sa.s.sin. With this, my business with the Ghanem family is concluded. Don"t give me another reason."

As his message played in Sek, Orison and Duran appeared back in Snow Cap. To celebrate survival, the group made their way to the canteen for an early supper and a couple of drinks. The young mage would have liked to celebrate with the married couple as well but after such a trying ordeal it was no surprise that they"d want to get somewhere safe and enjoy some peace for a little instead.

Halfway to the canteen, Orison received a message. "By royal decree, the challenge issued to Emir has been canceled. For attempting to cause unjust harm to the character of a royal representative, 10,000 gold has been fined against Orison Cantrip."

In angry disbelief, Orison relayed what had happened. No longer in the mood to celebrate anything, Orison excused himself but bid everyone else to enjoy themselves. Everyone was about to follow but Rithus held them as Duran said, "We"ll be back."

Catching up to Orison"s seething form, Duran said, "We need privacy. Strong privacy."

Knocked out of his building fury, Orison nodded and tried to think of a place that would suffice. Orison had Beta construct a model as he built one. By the time he had finished, they had reached Snow Cap"s transporter again. With a curtain of light, they were at the hub transporter for only a mere moment before another flash had moved them into the Temple of Greed. Currently inactive and sub-dimensional, it wasn"t a safe place to stay for long but it was the safest place Orison could think of.

Duran wasted no time on trivialities. He removed an ornate box from his own tree constructed inner plane and followed that by removing a badge. He closed his eyes and moments later, one of the three gems in the badge"s mouth broke. Once he was done with that, Duran pushed the box and badge into Orison"s hands.

The boy handed Orison the box and then pointed at the badge. "They"re yours... The prince, make it hurt."

Whatever was in the box, Orison could sense that questing essence was bending towards the box and he didn"t think it was a good idea for that essence to find it. Quickly putting the box away in his s.p.a.ce, Orison turned to the badge. After picking it up, a message appeared on the screen in his s.p.a.ce stating that he held a herald"s badge. It was similar to a three wishes concept except that there were limitations. It held the same level of rights to order Osomo as a lesser member of the First Family could. Those privileges extended to but not past the same level of authority as a ruler of a royal family but with more access to certain resources.

If there wasn"t an expectation for him to use it against the Sek prince, Orison wouldn"t have wasted such a precious thing on it but it was a gift from Duran and it had another use. Orison wouldn"t be petty with the giver but since he was committed, he"d be plenty petty to the prince. Once he was done thinking about how to handle it to the best degree, Orison made a note to find out from Duran what the Sek prince had done to upset the boy. Orison was completely clueless to what it could be.

Where Duran had gotten the items was no mystery and it must not have been easy for the boy to pull whatever mojo he had to have gotten his hands on this stuff. He made a note to ask about that as well. Duran was turning into a genuine puzzle to Orison. At times, the boy seemed no better off than anyone else and then suddenly does something far beyond Orison"s ability to comprehend. It didn"t help that getting information out of Duran was a major ha.s.sle.

Snapping out of his contemplation on Duran, Orison tested around to determine what was allowed and with the breaking of a gem in the dragon badge"s mouth, all Chosen received a message. "Arbitration has been called. Osomo favors the plaintiff to remain anonymous. The crown prince of Sek has been found guilty on 192 counts of crimes against the people. All fines, pardons, confinements and executions authorized by the crown prince shall be reviewed by the rulers of Auma and Fortune with an anonymous neutral party to a.s.sume mediation in the case of non-agreement. All royal decrees issued by the crown prince within the last thirty days will be nullified, all fines refunded... 300%, all confinements to be given... 100 gold per day in rest.i.tution.

"Furthermore, it is the Sek royal family"s personal duty to escort the crown prince to Listless Corridor where he shall be required to pa.s.s the trial in order to avoid additional sanctions from Osomo. Any further punitive actions shall be suspended until after the trial of Listless Corridor has been concluded. Failure of the Sek royal family to comply shall result in a third and final fallen mark... Nothing Follows."

Duran looked at Orison in admiration. "All that, so fast?"

Somewhat dumbfounded, Orison said, "I just asked for arbitration on the prince"s actions in the last thirty days! There must have been some kind of s...o...b..ll effect."