“Once upon a time, there were Nine pantheons. Nine pantheons for the nine great and terrible tribes who carried with them twelve different histories. In each history–”
“What happens before?”
“Hm?”
“Before the once upon a time? What happens before then?”
“...That’s a good question. Might be something better answered by your mother, but I believe the clearest answer is that it’s of dubious canonicity.”
“Dubious?”
“Yes. It’s a terrifying thing.”
“Why?”
“Because the story which we tell of time past might just change who we are now–ah, it’s too complicated–”
“No. I understand. If the past is different, the present has to be different too… Dad, why are you staring at me?”
“Nothing. You got the wit in you, Veylis. You know that?”
“Yes.”
[Loud guffaw] “And the confidence too.”
“Mother says ‘fear and cowardice are for those I feed to my glaive. Do not remind me of them, my girl.’”
“...”
“Story!”
“Okay, alright. So, as years passed and the gods warred to rule humanity, each of them began building a throne for their scripture. Many of the things they wrote about never were, but if they won… If their thrones grew taller and they claimed the others–”
“Are the thrones the Arks?”
“...Yes. How did you–”
“Mother took me to one. She showed me the worlds inside them and told me they were all lies, but their lies were like seeds and they could grow into something real if… if the “soils of time were settled.”
“...I’m going to need to talk with her about taking you to these places without telling me.”
“She calls it ‘character building.’”
“More ‘character-ending’ sometimes, I’m afraid.”
“Mother will protect me.”
“Yeah. Yeah, she will.”
“Daddy, why are the stories different? The voiders say we were all from the same place once. Why are the stories different?”
“...Because of want. Because the gods want to be more–to take up more of reality. Because everyone wants to win and win, and never lose and always be happy. Because within every person is a dream for paradise to silence the fears inside and light joys with higher form of fire. One that never stops burning. We’re afraid. But we also dream of being more. That’s what I think makes us human. We are the marriage between base impulse and heightened conception. From the former we flee, and into the arms of the latter we run.”
“So why do you make it sound so bad.”
“Because there can’t be more than one paradise, my heart.”
“Not even between you and mom?”
“No. Not between me and you. I love your mother more than my words can express, but we are very different people in our hearts. And you will be too. All too often, a paradise for one is a hell for someone else.”
“But wouldn’t you be happy forever?”
“Only reactively. The heart is a fickle thing, Veylis. There are things in the world that can change how you feel.”
“Like the ghosts in mother’s sword?”
“Yes. They can make you happy. Change your mind. Hurt you. But with what we know, I don’t think it’s… right.”
“Right?”
“Existence is about more than us. We have a responsibility to other people. Just like I have a responsibility to you and your mother.”
“But then what about the gods? Why don’t they care?”
“Because they are more like things than people. They care for nothing but eating and growing. And eventually, they will be nothing because everything will be them, and all of reality will bleed into itself and they will lose the ability to separate themselves from the pattern.”
“But what if the rules are changed? What if someone took their thrones and unified their history? What if someone established a single dream where everyone can be happy?”
“That would take many more lives. The human cost would be immense. And it would break us of our individuality.”
“But not afterward… right? It only needs to be done once.”
[Pause. Laughter] “Oh, there’s too much of your mother in you, my little pup.”
-+FATHER+, Mem-log of Veylis Avadaer, High Seraph of Highflame
13-11
The Shattered Dream (II)
+The Arks?+ Avo asked. +I don’t understand.+
And with the way Kae and Denton’s minds were ringing with confusion, neither did they. For Chambers, the ringing was constant and unchanged.
Laughter flourished from D’Rongo’s palace and the waters of her thoughts grew pungent with cruel amusement. +Oh. Oh, poor pitiful acolyte. Did your master neglect to mention some things to you? Or maybe… he didn’t know either.+
The elder’s tone had risen from bitter animosity into sing-song mockery, gloating as she perceived his ignorance to be a reversal of power that favored her.
Avo was unimpressed. +Know about the Ladder.+
Alarm shuddered out from Denton’s mind and D’Rongo’s mirth ran dry.
+Avo…+ Denton warned, an edge of heavy concern entering her thoughts.
+I’ll tear the memories from her,+ Avo replied without regarding the “Glaive.” If that was even what she truly was. +The elder won’t remember this conversation. Won’t remember much of anything.+
Denton sighed. +Make sure of it.+
+You know that Flayed Ladder,+ D’Rongo said. The words emerged more as statements uttered to oneself than a question offered to another. +I didn’t expect… Defiance to be such a fool.+ Her bitterness, banished but moments earlier, returned in force as her simulated expression devolved into a scowl. +Another player, then. A new contender at the great game of the Guilds. You taunt danger beyond your reckoning, Acolyte Chambers.+
Considering she had no real idea who he actually was, he found her judgment laughable.
+Tell me about them. The dangers.+ Avo felt his own amusement piqued when he sensed the building unease rising within Chambers, who watched the proceedings in rapt fascination, still befuddled about how he was deemed an Acolyte of the Low Masters.
Say what you will about Chambers, the man was proving remarkably useful as a reusable test dummy and now as a decoy against attention.
To this end, the mem-data flowing through D’Rongo’s mind suggested there was little point in removing her memories of Chambers; he had already been deemed a suspect by Ori-Thaum itself. Short of killing the elder, nothing would change regarding Chambers’ status as a fugitive of a fallen cult.
D’Rongo broke her contemplative silence with a scoff and continued. +Well. I suppose you at least know how things will end. Let me ask you a question: What do you think the Arks are?+
He drew the answers from the memories flowing through her. His Metamind screened and digested the mem-data as he examined the contents, but to his growing fascination, he found these memories encrypted and scrambled in sensory and visual details.
And as he reached back into the well that was D’Rongo’s inner mind, his ghosts returned bare of bounty and with a new revelation. Even she lacked access to this knowledge. These were sealed details, even within the confines of her cognition.
+Did you try to steal the answers from me? No. That’s not how this will work. That’s not how this will work because it’s not a stable memory, Acolyte. The Arks are more than an anchor for the Elysiums. They’re more than just a pillar of climbing paradises and the physical symbols of a Guild's power and influence. They contain… histories to be.+
+Histories?+ Avo asked.
+Tell me, what do you remember of Noloth’s past?+
The question didn’t phase him. The answer was–and has always been–almost nothing.
At the end of the Fourth Guild War, the Great Eight didn’t just butcher a few billion ghouls out of existence and shatter what remained of the Noloth loyalists, they also banished the Low Masters from the city proper. Thereafter, by ghost or genocide, they purged the public’s memories of the vestigial empire.
But thereafter, he also recalled Walton removing memories of his “Low Master” so that he would remember his time during the war. Another deliberate modification on the part of his father.
In some fashion, Noloth wasn’t too unlike Jhred Greatling’s mother. Comparatively, the former’s redaction wasn’t nearly as total as the latter, and little of the culture and language lingered within Avo.
Not that he found any use for it. Besides other ghouls and perhaps the Low Masters, he doubted anyone still remembered how to speak the low or high tongues of the old empire.
And it was preferable that way, seeing how bothered the Hungers were at their cultural defilement.
+You removed everything worth remembering,+ Avo responded, spacing his reply to make it seem like he was troubled. Pretending to be as unburdened and carefree as Walton was hard, but leading D’Rongo on with easy. The elder was an easier opponent when she was drunk on her pride. +I suppose this is the part you tell me something I don’t know. Shame me by asking why I’m ignorant of my own scripture.+
Her voice pitched high and she sang out in a sharp laugh. +No. No, that’s not why I’m going to mock you. I’m going to mock you for losing your history to us. Your Ark. The seat of your pantheons and the spine of your power. And the Ladder to our future.+
That aligned several minds along the tracks of curiosity.
+Noloth had an Ark,+ Denton said, sounding surprised.
+Noloth was among the pantheons?+ Kae asked, her mind aching with emptiness as she strained to recall a specific Nolothi ontologic she worked on.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
+I’m lost about what the fuck’s happening, but yeah, Noloth has a whatsit?+ Chambers said, out of a want to be included.
+Indeed. We took your past. We pillaged your would-be-histories and when we were done, we burned away all the parts we didn’t desire.+ D’Rongo settled into cold chuckles of laughter. +Did you hear me? You have no more past-to-be.+
The confusion returned. Why was she describing the past in terms of the future?
+Kae,+ Avo said, +sounds like thaumaturgy. You know what she’s talking about?+
+It’s not a specific Heaven, I think,+ she said, sounding increasingly uncertain. +And also! Heavens! They can’t be about the past. Can’t be centered around the past. We… we can’t go back in time because the past is… is destroyed. It’s gone! Everything is… it’s utter oblivion.+
+I don’t think she’s talking about records either,+ Denton added. +That doesn’t matter. Not in this context. Not when an Ark is concerned.+ Something inside her tightened in annoyance, and Avo thought the feeling almost familiar.
+It would’ve been useful if Zein was here.+
Ah. More than familiar then. Zein was useful for matters that concerned the nebulous complexities of the future or time itself. But Zein was also Zein.
+She’d be useful for herself,+ Avo said. +We’d all suffer.+
Denton hummed a soft tone of agreement. +True. I got the feeling she might’ve been keeping us all in the dark about this.+
+Maybe it's like a giant sequence of connected memories or some shit,+ Chambers said. +Then, they blast the city with mem-cons and we call get confused about what’s what.+
Slowly, Avo turned his attention over to the half-strand. +What?+
The ex-enforcer choked. +I–uh–I mean, yeah, it’s kinda stupid, but I’m just trying to–+
+Sequence of memories…+ Avo trailed off as he considered the implications behind it. A concept kindled like a candle being lit in his mind. Chronology. History. Lore. These things were tied–intrinsic to the creation of Heavens. What if this was something similar?
+Nothing to say, Chambers?+ D’Rongo jabbed, utterly certain of the harm she dealt in her words while absolutely ignorant to the brainstorm that was happening on the other side of the link. +A pity. A shame. What good it would have done you to win the war? But alas, while we seized the reins of our own agency and rose to be free, you elected to remain little more than cattle and slaves.+
The actual Aedon Chambers just stared on. +Fuck me, is this FATED sow giving us the “freedom” speech?+
+I don’t understand what this has to do with me,+ Kae said, the words darting out from between clenched teeth. +Avo. Enough! We’re just fucking… no more humoring her. Tear the memories from her mind. We’ll dig through it ourselves. I’m tired of listening to her–I’m tired of hearing about how other people get to fuck my lif–+
+Do you see the dangers that Project Godshaper posed to us now?+ D’Rongo interrupted. All other minds fell silent. +Do you? It wasn’t the rash that scared us. We can fight the Golds in the Rupture. We have deployable assets there. We cannot, however, allow them to use this pnemuaphage to alter its canons. And we cannot let it affect unified history.+
Distracted again from her flaring anger, Kae’s mind accelerated as she considered the elder’s words. +Avo. Ask her if she’s afraid the Imitators would affect the canons. All the canons.+
He did as she asked, and the elder responded with derision.
+This has more to do than a single Heaven, you fool. This concerns the ultimate victory at the end–something your master clearly kept from you.+ She intoned a wordless note as she considered him. +Did you kill him? Why are you missing so many pieces?+
+Yes,+ Avo said, speaking the technical truth. +Keep talking.+
She obeyed. +Every Heaven has a place and a culture behind it. Every place has a history and a people. And from this come who we are. We, and all the ones we clash with. It is a dialect that ripples out across reality. It shapes all that was–all that could be.+ A brief beat seized her as she sighed. +Sometimes, I wonder if Jaus truly could have found a solution for our divergent pasts. If only his murderous thug of a daughter hadn’t fed him to the Ladder.+
+What did she do?+ Avo asked. +How does the Flayed Ladder work? The Arks?+
+There is no Ladder without the Arks,+ D’Rongo replied. +And not without us. The Arks are… a creation of critical mass. When enough gods exist to form a pantheon, and the Domain portfolio of the pantheon–+
+--Grows broad enough to embody most facets of reality,+ Kae breathed. +Like… like having all the components to make something that resembles a second world.+
+Or a whole new one,+ Denton suggested.
+In two years' time, this will all be over,+ D’Rongo said. +The Ladder will return across the span of time as the unifying centerpiece of our world–Jaus’ final masterpiece and the prize of ultimate salvation.+
+Then why fight?+ Avo asked. The beast coiled in muted outrage at such a question. +Why. If everything can be saved–+
+You aren’t listening. Nothing will be saved–everything will be rewritten.+ D’Rongo lapsed into silence. +That is why the war should be won beforehand. Not after. If the Saintists are defeated before the day of re-emergence, then can focus on the others, and then I can focus on reaching the final floor.+
+The others.+ Avo understood. +You’re going to turn on your allies as well. Does Ori-Thaum–+
+We all know,+ D’Rongo said. +There could be no other way about this. There cannot be two paradises. There can’t even be a shared interpretation between two people.+ Her ego shuddered. +And if one is torn of will and want… I have seen what the tower does to the uncertain, the wavering. It tries to fulfill all desires, no matter how contradictory.+
The shudder grew into a quiver. +Oh, but poor Jaus. He was too good a man to suffer such a wretched fate. I will see him saved and spared of eternal torment if we win.+
+If you win,+ Avo asked.
The elder laughed. +I cannot win. It’s impossible. I am an Council Elder of Ori-Thaum. I have foresworn my right to bear the privilege of a Liminal Frame, and only a fully intact Nous within a Frame rise the ladders of resurrection.+ D’Rongo’s ghosts closed in, all of them undulating at him like beckoning fingers. +One. If two ascend at the same time–well, imagine two absolute rulers of reality trying to dictator the rules at the end. Who is to be canon? What history is to be true? And what happens if there is a conflict between their thoughts?+
+One,+ Avo said. +Or all aligned to one. Project Godshaper…+
+Yes,+ D’Rongo agreed. +We couldn’t let Highflame have its power. There is too much at stake for the war to carry over as things are. Or if a multiplicity of conditions are true. We are trying to create a new paradise, not paradoxical ruination.+
+That’s why you’re still hunting for Agnos Kusanade,+ he said, guiding her. +You need her to stop the Imitators if they spread.+
+That is the lowest of our hopes. Yes. I–+
A squeal of alarm sounded in the back of Avo’s mind. His cog-feed flashed multiple warnings as someone triggered his high thoughtwave tripwire back in Oversec-C1. Additional indicators followed. Someone jacked into one of his subverted Exorcists. Another was accessing the Auto-Seance he built into the administrative node.
And then, across the Unwhere network, he felt a presence that wasn’t quite his own or an Exorcist brush the inner confines of Abrel Greatling’s mind.
Unknown Necros were moving through the system from multiple angles. The only uncertainty that remained was if they were Incubi responding to save their elder, hired jackers who didn’t know they were about to get nulled, or the Low Masters steering toward inevitable confrontation.
The conversation with Elder D’Rongo wasn’t done, but the threats were a priority.
There were hunters in the deep, and soon he was to be among them.
+Oversec C1 is compromised,+ Avo said, casting the thoughts and mem-data over to his allies. +Time for you all to jack out.+
+What?+ Kae said, her voice spiking in outrage. +No. We’re not done. She’s–+
+Going to tear her memories clean,+ Avo said. +Also going to put an Auto-Seance in her mind. You’ll get your pain. Easy promise.+
Denton’s mind offered a sour response to his offer. +Are you staying?+
He turned off his Morality Injector. The beast clawed its way out from his throbbing skull as bloodlust filled him across skin, sinew, and soul. +Going to greet the other intruders. Want to see what they’re like. Learn what they want.+
She only offered mute acknowledgment to the sadistic hunger edging his thoughts. +Alright. Tell me if you leak any memories into the Nether.+
Avo didn’t bother responding. Her lack of confidence in him was insulting at this point. +Kae. If I get nulled you kill me.+
The Agnos’ mind reeled back, stunned by his request.
He stuck a claw into her wound. +My father sold you like you were FATELESS to suffer. You are discussed like a tool. Traded. Only valued for what you know. And all this is partially because of me. Should get that gun you used earlier. Should get Draus to teach you how in case I go mind-dead.+
At his prodding, her disposition hardened with returning hatred blended with uncertainty. +I liked the feeling of your spear more, honestly.+
That surprised him. +...Use it then.+
+I…+ Her chest was a knot of frustration, confusion, and conflict. She was mad. She was confused. She was unfulfilled. She was thinking. +I want to talk to you. When you come out.+
He agreed. +We all need to talk when I’m done.+
Denton and Kae jacked out. Their ghosts vanished before his perception.
Beside him, Chambers lingered.
+Why are you still here,+ Avo asked.
+Well,+ Chambers said, awkwardly. +Maybe you could use backup. A partner! We could be like team here. Avo and Cha–+ Avo cast a pack of jumbled mem-data into the man. Chambers’ voice twisted into a note of raw surprise. +What the f–+
Avo tore the mem-data back out. +Too late. Didn’t sequence fast enough. Not good. Not a Necro. Useless. Jack out.+
A trickle of genuine hurt slipped free from Chambers. +Jaus, consang, you didn’t need to say all that. Just tell me to fuck off or something.+
His ghosts blinked and faded as well.
That just left two.
Two within D’Rongo’s mindscape.
Avo turned his attention back to her as he prepared to access his Ghostjack. He was going to leave a backdoor in her as well, but before that, he wanted to indulge himself.
All the talking he suffered was worth a reward…
+You were wrong,+ Avo said, spearing his ghosts directly into D’Rongo’s being.
Her confusion spiked high like a mountain erupting free from soil. +Oh. And what was I wrong about?+
He peeled away all the modifications and disguises behind his ghost before manifesting his physical shell as an avatar. As he came into form before a congress of leering ghosts, he also cast another packet of mem-data directly into her mind, stinging her with the truth of his Frame–of all that he knew.
D’Rongo’s mind rattled and fissured. Cracks ran up through her serried palace. The sneer behind her word faded as she gasped, dread and panic both rising within her. +I… how could this… y-you…+
+Yes,+ Avo said, enjoying the moment before he tore these memories out from her. +Not Chambers. Not Walton. Me.+
+You… you can’t be real–your kind can’t… oh, gods it's inside you–+ Her being went frigid and stiff as he sank his ghosts into her memories. +No, wait! I propose a new bargain! I have things you want–+
+And I will take them from you,+ Avo said. +After you forget. I will take from you. Knowledge. Phantasmics. Suffering. I will take everything from you. And I will burn away all the parts I don’t desire.+
+No, wait! Wait–+
He fired his reflexes and tore his ghost back. Her memories snapped loose, thoughtstuff spilling free as her mind rose into a maddened scream of absolute dread.
Within a few seconds, she would remember nothing of this conversation; but within those few seconds, all she would know was him.