There is salvation in ruin.
There is permanence in entropy.
The other Guilds exist in delusion. They think the end can be surmounted or claimed or placed beneath their will.
This is impossible.
We, the bearers of the Skuldvast, the survivors eternal, know the one truth, the one end.
That all struggle ends in destruction and death.
Not even the stars may burn forever, and there will come a time when time itself unravels.
But the end need not be feared. We need not succumb to despair.
The end is release. The end is the last threshold we are to join, and the final womb in which we will slumber across the unbirthing of all realities to come.
Let the others hold to their soft dreams of triumph. All machines break. All flesh decays.
We will bind ourselves to the breaking, and in it, we sever ourselves from the torments the tapestry.
Within the great roots come whispers of storms aroused. Let the world be smashed. Let all be undone. Let all crumble and rise and crumble anew.
Our scars show the way, and what is shattered may bloom evermore.
-Mad Rusings of Old Yadda, First Longeye of the Scaarthians
14-14
The Devil That You Don’t
Something made Reva’s spirit shudder every time the ghoul spoke to her. The dread was in the way she thought, in the words he used, in the wrongness of his consciousness and Frame.
The quiet dread Avo inspired was more than mere horror. She knew terror from her work, faced ‘Clads of her Spherage or greater, and beheld atrocities unparalleled in both intimacy and scope. She long thought her mind wrought from something sterner than iron, scars building upon her psyche like plating.
But each moment she spent near him threatened to peel away her nerves.
Ghosts came aflame when kissed by his consciousness, and here, with them lined Soul to Soul, she found an unnatural symmetry between his Frame and ego. The way his Soulfire rippled and shifted and held to no stable form rankled her, but the utterances that flowed free from his Heavens–seemingly alive beyond even his volition–drove spears of ice-cold numbness into her depths.
Still, she mastered herself. She imbibed the discomfort as she was taught and adorned herself in an armor of indifference.
If there was one thing she could control, it was how she reacted, and so she reeled back her shock and set about facing her opposite like a foe.
“I’m sorry, before your start shoving me face-first into the ghoul-oil shit you’re trying to peddle, did your Heaven just talk to me? The Sangeist, I mean. Or whatever it is now. Because that voice did not come from your Soul. And I’m pretty sure your Galeslither just neighed too.”
She infused as much mild apathy as she could into her words, intent on downplaying her reaction after her earlier lapse in focus. What she couldn’t help was her straying attention. His Soul twisted and udulated like it was alive, the currents of his fire moving whatever they so pleased, the curves of the inferno rippling like grass graced by a storm.
“They had an awakening,” Avo said. “Something that resulted as I began to reconstruct their potential.”
His vagueness maddening. He might claim to have inherited parts of Raldi’s mind, but he lacked all his warmth and seemed more lost in the maze that seemed to be his own mind.
There was another thing she wasn’t sure how she felt about parts of Raldi existing within the ghoul. Lovers though she and the White-Rab may be, they still kept deliberate secrets from each other. He didn’t need to know the unsightly services she performed for the Longeyes, and she didn’t need to know if he ever dived against those of her color.
Such ensured stability in their romance and warded them from unwanted tension.
RESURRECTION - 18%
With Avo, though, she foresaw a potential… disagreement between her and Raldi. He was entranced by the nature of his consciousness ever since he first laid eyes on the ghoul, and his interest evolved into feverish curiosity when the creature assimilated the offered memory packet.
And now, said creature was turning its charm offensive on her through hints of empowerment and demonstrations of his Frame’s usual capabilities.
“Be you jealous of what the master is capable?” The Heaven that resembled a heavily upgraded Sangeist said. Its features were rife with detail, blood flowing between states of glass, metal, and quivering mem-data, while lightning coursed through its rushing arteries.
Wait, had the imbuement of electricity been there when she faced him in Nu-Scarrowbur? Their battle happened in a flash, but she thought him less developed then…
Studying the Woundshaper through the tunnel of Soulfire bridging Avo Frame to hers, she also noticed an equine-shadow fused across from the first Heaven at an angle. Where the Heaven of Blood was immense in thaums and detail, Avo’s secondary Heaven was subtle and lesser in more ways than one.
Like a three-headed steed shedding trails of darkness and expelling whirlwinds from its mane, the Galeslither held itself to a silent, sullen demeanor in contrast to the peacocking of the Woundshaper.
The mem-data for each of his Heavens finally loaded into her ego, and she found herself further shaken.
HEAVEN - WOUNDSHAPER
DOMAIN: (BLOOD/MATTER/BIOLOGY/LUMINOSITY/LIGHTNING)
THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 1042 THAUM/c
HELL - [FOURTH CIRCLE] - WOUNDSHAPER
DOMAIN: (MATTER/ENTROPY)
THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 1042 THAUM/c
HEAVEN - [GALESLITHER]
DOMAIN: (AIR/SPACE/SHADOW)
THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 430 THAUM/c
HELL - [THIRD CIRCLE] - GALESLITHER
DOMAIN: (AIR/ENTROPY/)
THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 430 THAUM/c
“Fuck,” she muttered thusly. Even his lesser Heaven wasn’t insubstantial.
Wishing to drive the blade of power and envy deeper, he swept the form of a thaumic cycler in and out from the confines of her Soul. With how it coiled and ate at each other eternally, she knew what she saw.
He had a loose dragon. One that he could supposedly graft to himself at any time.
Or her.
Oh. Oh, she knew what he was doing.
And it bothered her.
Goddammit, did it bother her.
RESURRECTION - 22%
“You know, you’re kind of a half-strand,” she said. “First you just toss a Heaven into my Liminality like it's just a couple of imps and now you’re flashing a full-on cycler at me. I don’t know what parts of Raldi you got, but the shamelessness isn’t part of it.”
“Might be the ego,” Avo replied. He probably meant that in more ways than one. “Just a pity about your Frame.”
“A pity.” If she had eyes, they would have narrowed. “What do you mean ‘a pity.’”
“Narrow build. It’s like a cone. You have space to build upward. Not so much horizontally. Too many limitations. I pity you.”
If she had eyes, they would be slits by this point. “Again. Half-strand.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” he said. “Going to repeat my offer. What kind of god do you want to–”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“My own,” she said, cutting him off. “I’m going to talk now. And you’ll listen. I know what you’re trying to do–and I’m tempted. I’ve been very tempted. But that’s just the thing: I lived my life being very tempted by things and telling my temptations to go fuck themselves. So. Here are some ground rules: I don’t tell you, give you, or even speak to you without knowing exactly what you want first. This isn’t free. These are ontologics, and no one’s that generous.”
“Ah. It seems like our new associate yearns for entrepreneurial honesty,” the Woundshaper whispered.
Avo grunted, and she detected a note of amusement in his thoughts. “Good. Prefer things this way. Let’s be direct with each other then. I want to use you.”
“I’m taken” Reva deadpanned. “And no, there’s no room for a third. Even if you are the world’s most special rotlick with part of my boyfriend’s cognition swimming in that trash fire you call a mind.”
Part of her wondered if she was taking things a step too far–if he would retaliate and alter her Soul somehow. Mostly, however, she quite enjoyed barking at others. These little nasty exchanges were like social spices for her–they made unpleasant situations all the more palatable.
“I meant for runs and dives,” Avo said.
“I know. But my allegiance isn’t for sale. I’m all booked out on that front too.”
“Even if I give you opportunities to go after Highflame?”
That was different. But that also had her playing to his tune. Serving his needs. “So, what, you feed me intel, and I play a two-sided attack dog? You tip me off, and through me you use Stormtree assets against your problems?”
“Our problems,” he corrected. “Two people can share similar problems. You will also be compensated for your… efforts. Services should come with recompense.”
“Back to bribery again, huh?”
“Yes. Is it working?”
“We’ll see. I have few questions of my own in the meantime. First of which is if there are any other Frames of your pattern out there.”
The ghoul paused and considered his answer. “Don’t think so. Not yet.”
Not yet. There was that uncertainty that lingered in his answers again. “What do you mean ‘not yet’?”
“Means wait for a while. Can tell you this: Highflame probably doesn’t have another one still in their possession. Stormtree can consider itself spared from destruction.”
“Wonderful. My heart can rest easy now.” Reva sighed. “How’d you get it?”
“It was a gift.”
“From?”
“The Strix. The Low Master. My father. You don’t know him. You can ask your lover though. They were close once. Saw your Raldi as an adopted son.”
“So, what? He just snatched this from the Agnosi?” Another thought occurred to Reva, and she found herself considering the deeper implications of his Liminal Frame. “And why did they ever make this Frame in the first place? With all the things it can do, won’t this make them–”
“Obsolete? Yes. Yes.” Avo chuffed with satisfaction. “It’s very liberating. But no. The one who made its creation possible wasn’t even aware of its eventual conception. It was… the result of a perfect storm. Some aspects planned. Some just chance. Maybe it might spread.”
“Spread? What do you mean spread?”
“You’ll notice if it does.”
Reva had suffered more than her share of No-Dragon plagues to like that answer in any capacity.
“You suspect me,” Avo continued. “This is good. This is only right. But you need to understand that your nulling at my hands in Nu-Scarrowbur was the best thing that could have happened. That our encounter has opened new paths for your future. That your relationship with White-Rab prevented your demise.”
“So, you’d try and snuff me for good if Raldi wasn’t here?” she asked. Checking her resurrection, she noticed her progress had ticked past thirty percent.
Meanwhile, the ghoul seemed to be matching her pace even though his death came first.
“Wouldn’t be much trying.” His thoughts held no brovado in their wavelengths. He spoke the words the same way someone might judge the weather or order a meal.
Somehow, he was certain that her life was something he could take at his leisure.
She couldn’t say it didn’t bother her. Reva had faced and broken her share of egotists and antagonists during her climb up Stormtree’s ranks. Scaarthians that thought lowly of the “lesser clads.” Those who followed the old traditions of ritual and scarification in defiance of the new age.
All of them once thought her easy prey, and when the day was done, it was she that found them wanting in mettle and will.
With Avo though, there were multiple vectors of attack beyond her means to repel. His mind was incendiary, and if she didn’t get him with a disruption, she didn’t want to think about what might happen if he managed to tear into the core of her ego. His Woundshaper was also a related danger in how it could help him channel his ghosts even when the Nether was disrupted considering how he weaponized it as a cognitive conduit in their brief encounter.
From what she gleaned, he might just have been the single most asymmetric threat she faced. Physically, the threat they posed to each other was negligible. Not when their canons clashed and she could reform the Shatterborn from a pebble. But where her miracles ended, he seemed to continue on, and his growth was unfettered in potential and possibility.
Bad odds. That was something she had to admit to herself. Bad odds she could see evened if she brought her cadre into these affairs, but the risk that presented was too severe.
Reva loved Tigertail like a sister, and Root and Ullens had never been anything but reliable. They were, however, “reflexively murderous” and Reva didn’t want to use Raldi’s life as a bid to test just how loyal they were to her instead of the Longeyes.
And, if she were to be honest, she really didn’t want them to go the same way as Abrel’s cadre. Whatever the ghoul did, Highflame was down three Godclads.
Wait. Down three…
She turned her attention to the Lushburner again and understood. He took that from her uncle’s golems, so the cycler she saw earlier must’ve been snatched from…
Jaus.
He snuffed three other ‘Clads for good. Dead gods knew how many thaumic cyclers he had with him. Dead gods knew just how many other Heavens he was hiding in the chaos that was his Frame.
“Now. Would you like for me to merge the Lushburner with your Shatterborn,” Avo asked. “Break it down to its fundamental domains? I can do both. Biology can enhance your second Heaven as well.”
“No,” she said, resisting. It was easy power. So easy. With just single word of acceptance, he could have pushed her past the threshold of being a Fourth Sphere. But she held her avarice in check. She swore her oaths and her loyalties–
Again, she thought of the pureborn Scaarthians. Again, her mind drifted to Raldi and her cadre.
Her life.
She had come so far, but much had still been denied to her.
Right now, the ghoul was an opportunity. Despite all his abilities, he hadn’t tried to twist her by force. He hadn’t even spoken a single harsh word. Instead of deepening her appreciation for him, she only felt the pit in her core grow deeper.
This wasn’t how his kind was supposed to be. He was calmer than she was–more in control than she was.
This entire affair was an exercise in mercy and patience on his part.
And she couldn’t rightly figure out why.
“I will not press you further on this,” Avo said, openly disappointed. “I will not inflict a choice you don’t desire. Not until we are properly enemies.” He paused. “You do not want that. You do not want to lose your ability to govern yourself. It’s… hm. The minds inside me accept it. They feel what I want them to. But do you know what they think before the end? The last thoughts that are truly theirs?”
If she was of flesh, she would have swallowed. “I’m sure it’s all bone-chilling and terrifying.”
“No,” Avo said. “Just honest. Just a simple admission that they don’t want to go away. The idea of the self is… so fragile. You care for White-Rab. But I can make it not so. The I can make you forget. And I can make you hate him.”
She scoffed. “Are we finally at the threatening phase of our relationship?”
“No. I’m still just being honest. I will try not to hurt you because of White-Rab. Your Raldi. My father cared deeply for him. And there’s something of him in me. I think that should matter. I think I should keep him safe. And useful. Be glad you are part of that equation.”
Reva didn’t know what to say as a reply.
“Consider what I can offer,” Avo said. “And know that you will accept my boons when your moment of desperation comes. Do not lie to yourself. You will seek me for power. That is why you are a Godclad. You feel the hunger too. It is known to both of us.”
He sounded as sure about that eventuality as one of the Longeyes did while sifting through auguries to gaze upon the future.
“Need something else from you right now,” he said. “Want to work together with you. For Raldi. Subject of mutual care.”
She didn’t like where this was going.
“Walton left me a few dead-drops. Raldi’s like an adopted son. He should be included when I go seek out the caches. Part of his legacy too.”
A laugh escaped her. That wasn’t what she was expecting at all. “You’re asking for my permission to play third wheel?”
“Want an invitation. Your acceptance will make our association… easier. He cares about your opinion. I don’t think he will go along with me blindly if you don’t support him. I want this to be real. Manipulation is bad terms for friendship.”
“Friendship,” Reva muttered. “Is that what this is now?”
“Why shouldn’t it be?” Avo said. Again, he nudged the Lushburner at her. “Just say yes. Just give yourself what you deserve. What are you denying this for? Trust? Fear? Worry? It’s already under my allowance. Take a small risk before we embark on a larger one. Let me show you I can be trusted.”
Something ineffable changed inside her, and Reva chewed on his offer. “What kind of goddess do I want to be, huh?”
“Yes,” Avo said, voice coming alive with delight. “Yes…”
“Show me something small first. Something from the Domain of Fire. Then I’ll see how I feel about this ‘friendship’ you’re offering.”
The ghoul chuckled lowly and sighed. “It’s all I can ask.”