As the next day rolls around and the villagers from nearby the fortress return after being informed by Sunhale and Golanier of what transpired Yorun wakes once more, as he sits up he looks at his hand before sighing and looking to one of the nearby stone walls. Yorun uses some magic on the wall making the current date appear on it as if it were a calendar and Yorun looks a bit sad after seeing it, he gets up and teleports new clothes on under the cloak before walking out. Yorun walks the halls past the villagers before heading into the war room where he finds Sunhale.
"Hey Sunhale" Yorun said the bit of sadness evident on his face
"Hey Yorun, what's wrong?" Sunhale asked both curious and genuinely a little worried
"It's the 39th of Helkiath, my daughters birthday would have been in two days. It's hitting me right in the soul to say the least" Yorun said
"Oh I'm sorry, I had never asked about such things, I don't imagine that this kind of time is easy for you given well everything" Sunhale said
"No matter how old she or her brother got, they always enjoyed the time their birthdays came around, as we get older and I imagine more so for those who live a long time like yourself the magic of that one day leaves you but it never felt like it would with either of them. Every year that passed and I would feel my body gradually giving up on me all I would see is those two smiling along as life continued to present them with good times. Seeing their smiles on their birthdays never ceased to give me my own but this time? I cannot see that and I doubt she will have one this time" Yorun said tears running down his scarred face
Sunhale looks at him and feels bad for him and he reaches out to his shoulder but hesitates for a moment before putting his hand on it.
"Listen Yorun I may have joined you as just an ally but we've grown a respect to each other and I hope a friendship, we've not delved into each others lives but that doesn't mean I don't feel terrible for all that has happened to you and I sincerely hope you get to see those smiles once again alright?" Sunhale said getting a nod in return from Yorun
"Right, thanks Sunhale and yeah you're a friend, definitely not how I imagined befriending an elf but you are one all the same" Yorun said as he wipes away the tears
"When the day of your daughters birthday comes I'll be there with you, she may not be able to do so here but we'll celebrate her life all the same" Sunhale said
"Thank you Sunhale I appreciate it" Yorun said turning to look at Sunhale
"You can take a rest if you want all of this is not easy on you never mind with that coming up, I'll handle things out here after all the undead do take my orders too" Sunhale said
"I'll do just that but if you'll continue working then I have a request, find out what Malekanivor was talking about, I want to know what happened to Raeknars last chosen" Yorun said before heading back to his room
"Last chosen..." Sunhale said to himself in the elven language
Sunhale leaves the war room and heads through the fortress corridors until he finds the stairway down into the dungeon, he walks down passing by numerous undead guards and through a barrier nullifying the magic of any prisoners kept there which is only one now. Sunhale looks around and finds Golanier in front of Ikterans cell.
"Golanier" Sunhale said
"Sunhale, need something?" Golanier asked
"I wasn't around the immediate area of Yorun and Ikteran when Raeknar and Malekanivor took over and spoke to one another. What's this about Yoruns predecessor?" Sunhale asked and theres a laugh from the nearby imprisoned Ikteran
"Have fun searching little elf" Ikteran said though the mouth that is in place of one of his hands
"Shut it you" Golanier said before shooting some lightning at him through the cell bars eliciting a scream of pain
"Lets talk away from the prisoner" Sunhale said getting a nod in response
Sunhale and Golanier leave the dungeon and Golanier talks Sunhale through the conversation Raeknar and Malekanivor had before they fought.
"Interesting, so a previous chosen died and their whole race went soon after, 500 million years ago is a long fucking time to find anything on though" Sunhale said
"Your archives got anything that far back?" Golanier asked
"Far as I know the archives were established 200 million years ago sure there will be some things from a bit further back but that far? At most its likely speculation, I'll head there and check though" Sunhale said
"Yeah you do that, I'll head to Kragrum and see if Celantriak or any other demon knows something, unless killed by some external force they will live forever after all so some may know something" Golanier said before opening a portal and heading through closing it behind himself
Sunhale teleports across the lands all the way out of the Fiernian empire and back into Qur'Anther just outside the archives. Sunhale walks into the archives and he looks to the reception desk seeing Fal'Rine resting in his chair but as Sunhale approaches Fal'Rine notices and gets up.
"Sunhale it has been a little while, good to see you" Fal'Rine said speaking the elven language
"Likewise Fal'Rine, I've come to find out about the god Raeknar whom Yorun serves as they may have had a chosen a long time ago and that information may prove useful, I know they are a human god but our archives must have something" Sunhale said
"Don't keep up that farse of multiple pantheons if you read even a full quarter of the stories on gods in these archives you will notice very quickly that its an idiotic notion" Fal'Rine said
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"Oh thank the gods, its annoying to dance around that and find information that's relevant in good time" Sunhale said eliciting a chuckle from Fal'Rine
"Fair enough, fair enough. Now how long ago did this predecessor to Yorun exist?" Fal'Rine asked now curious but wanting to help
"According to Malekanivor 500 million years ago" Sunhale said shocking Fal'Rine
"That's a good deal older than the archives though we do have sections of this place where older things are kept and more than that so how about we go look?" Fal'Rine said before using magic to float off the ground slightly
Sunhale takes note of that as he follows Fal'Rine through the archives, the walking takes a while as with the archives bending reality the oldest parts are a fair distance away to keep all the information since their establishment. Row after row of bookshelves are passed alongside tables containing important or historically relevant items to the point in time each sections are for but as they reach further and further in eventually it becomes more sparse less information on certain times until Fal'Rine stops.
"Alright this area around us now has any information we believe MAY be from around 500 million years ago, very little evidence other than some ancient sites, bones or to be translated pieces of writing, language changes a lot during that time after all" Fal'Rine said
"Alright, thanks Fal'Rine you can rest I'll look through what's here" Sunhale said as he turned to him
"Oh nonsense, I'll help you, you start around here while I go check the book 'Races of the Realms' for any possible information" Fal'Rine said
"Thanks Fal'Rine" Sunhale said
Fal'Rine floats away while Sunhale grabs some books and begins to read over them, it takes hours even with magical help to read through it all faster and Sunhale is quickly realising how much there is going to be.
"Don't know why I didn't even think about this, while there is less information compared to the last 200 million years its still a large span of time I'm looking into so even if its mostly speculations there's a lot of it, I need to narrow the search first. If they were a chosen of Raeknar they'd be doing similar things to Yorun likely stopping people throughout some empire from committing more injustices, combine that if the fact we know they're of a race that no longer exists... Maybe I should look at records of cities, kingdoms or empires that had trouble or fell during that time then cross reference it with anything Fal'Rine finds on races" Sunhale said to himself as he began to pick out books and documents pertaining to such things
Golanier meanwhile stands in Kragrum and as he looks around the realm of demons he waits a moment while standing within his own territory for Celantriak who arrives not even a minute later despite his hulking size he kneels before Golanier but even kneeling he is eye level with Golanier.
"My lord, what brings you here this day?" Celantriak asked
"The human I'm bound too Yorun is not Raeknars first chosen, we're looking for information on who his predecessor was, know anything?" Golanier asked
"I had heard rumours of such a thing but they were spread long ago and only as a result of the ancient purging's" Celantriak said
"Ancient purging's?" Golanier asked
"A long time ago even long before I was created by our god the ancient demons were all wiped out by someone and the demons who came after theorised or were even told by our god but they've long since been killed off by your hand my lord" Celantriak said
"Shit, my old days are catching up to me" Golanier said somewhat annoyed now
"I could still ask around if you so wish my lord, there may be some who still know something and have been tight lipped" Celantriak said
"Do so and report back to me by the days end or sooner if you uncover anything, I'll head to Qur'Anther oh and if there are any demons that remain tight lipped and they may actually have that information? Break them" Golanier said before leaving the realm once more and teleporting to the Qur'Anther archives
Golanier walks inside and much like when he returned to the cities Magical Research and Development Institution with Yorun and Sunhale prior some ancient defences activate and vines of the same variety as then alongside more than a few Golems come from the ground. Fal'Rine quickly comes over to see what is happening as does Sunhale.
"Really? Again Golanier?" Sunhale asked somewhat annoyed
"What? Blame your ancestors for making you keep charging these defences when I was long gone" Golanier said making Sunhale facepalm
"I suppose you have a point" Sunhale said
"Well this is a unique one, so you're the previous necromancer hm? I had heard from Vinak about this hold on a moment" Fal'Rine said before floating away and once he is out of sight the defences shut down and the vines as well as the Golems return into the ground
"Quicker than Vinak did it" Sunhale said as Fal'Rine came back
"Well with the knowledge from Vinak it made it a trivial matter now what brings the attempted world conqueror here?" Fal'Rine asked
"Information, there's a that some demon might know something about Yoruns predecessor but also a far larger chance even they've lost that knowledge since as it turns out a long time ago every demon was purged and once new ones were made the oldest I killed back in the day" Golanier said
"Actions have consequences" Fal'Rine said with a smirk
"Yeah yeah whatever, anyway find anything on your end?" Golanier asked
"We're combing through a long period of time most of which here is speculation so honestly? No idea if we'll find anything today" Sunhale said
"I found one thing that may be of use to you" Fal'Rine said
"What'd you find?" Sunhale asked and Golanier listens curious himself
"Within an extremely old book chronicling the races of the realms there was mentions of a race that was theorised to have existed 500 million years ago right now which at the time of the books writing was 300 million years prior. This book was the first written around the time this archive was built anyway this race was a draconic people sharing many similarities to the powerful dragons we know of and from what we know were close to the big creatures themselves. They are the only race theorised to have disappeared around that time if this book is correct anyway" Fal'Rine said and this seems to have gotten a reaction from Golanier as he immediately used magic on his own head
"What are you doing?" Sunhale asked
"Remembering, its been a while and as a result I need to do this but you'll see" Golanier said
After a couple minutes he uses his magic to conjure a replica of a humanoid draconic male who with a large wingspan and many scars across it.
"This was one of my undead generals I had found the body in an old tomb, just figured they were another necromancer from years past given the way the body was preserved with magic but theres every chance that was done by Raeknar as opposed to this man himself. Unfortunately no memories ever came back as despite the magic preserving it the memories never returned to its undead brain" Golanier said
"Fascinating, it does fit that small description so its possible" Fal'Rine said
"We need more though, this still doesn't tell much except that you MAY have made Raeknars at the time ONLY chosen into an undead soldier for yourself" Sunhale
"You could try asking an ancient dragon, dragons are among the oldest living creatures of the realms and the oldest known one of which is still alive is the dragon called Ghairlakriar and as far as she has told us she is about 600 million years old though she is reclusive and despite her size I have no idea of her current whereabouts" Fal'Rine said
"Over time we'll look into dragon sightings then see if we can track down one old enough while Celantriak continues to look into the demon angle" Golanier said
"Well it's our best plan, we'll be leaving now Fal'Rine, if you find anything else possibly useful please do tell us" Sunhale said
"Of course and please do come back, these visits are certainly more interesting than those who come here for schooling purposes" Fal'Rine said with a chuckle before heading back to his reception desk
Sunhale and Golanier teleport back to the fortress and continue with their duties yet as the day progresses the skies above the giants lands darken as a dragon of unbelievable size even to them flies above blocking the sun as it passes by...