Draug

Truly it has been a boon to have met this little human, a budding talent that brought with it 3 treasures of priceless value along with a plethora of interesting objects for me to play with. Acquiring the last piece of the one the 7 severed hearts of Paradyme is serendipitous enough but also crystallized chaos and this Eye to peer into all these secrets...

‘’You are very fortunate to have met me,’’ I can’t resist saying and it’s true.

It would invite bad karma to kill this human out of hand but beyond just letting it live I’ll have to reward this one somehow. What better reward than to be allowed near me and live, hmm? I'll see what I give it along with its life.

‘’Oh, why is that?’’

I’m amused at the wry sarcasm in the human's aura as it asks the question, I share my own aura in communication. ‘’You have already benefited pricelessly for my attention.’’

{Distrust}. ‘’I see nothing here that I wouldn’t have gotten to on my own eventually.’’

‘’If you’d live long enough perhaps you would have leanred to cycle, a doubtful occurrence from what I know about you.’’

{Strong mistrust, alertness, suspicion, disbelieving humour}. ‘’What do you know about me?’’

‘’I know everything about you Sachihiro van Damage of the Barbarians,’’ I looked inside his mind.

Emotions play across the human transparently to me. {Worry, aggression, a hint of fear. Calm}. ‘’What is everything about me?’’

I convey my humour. ‘’I know it may have taken even you several more decades to figure out what I just showed you and years more to take it as far I've pushed you to take it.’’

{Calculative cunning}. ‘’And what exactly is it you have shown me?’’

‘’You are clever enough to have figured that out by now I’m sure.’’

‘’Maybe I’m not that clever.’’

‘’Maybe not, I suppose that is yet to be proven.’’

{Determination}. ‘’What is your name?’’

‘’A name used correctly can be a powerful tool in the hands of those that can wield it.’’

‘’Yet you have mine.’’

‘’I have a bare minimum of your name,'' my name being known again will be gain for me. ''You may call me, Draug.’’

{Surprise. Speculative calculation. Fear. Cunning. Hope}. ‘’It is a pleasure to have your name Draug, the bare minimum of it at the very least.’’

I let my humour be felt, a lower being of logic with this level of aura perception is rare enough to be a treat even had I no bigger purpose for interacting with it. I do though, have bigger purposes. ‘’Everything you have given me, you have given it freely correct?’’

{Consideration. Hope. Cunning. Greed.} ‘’No, no I have not given it freely.’’

‘’Can you take it back?’’

Consideration.

I’m amused by the amount of time it takes in which the mortal actually considers his chances of taking something from me. The arrogance of this one is fit for a fledging dragonling.

‘’No,'' it finally says. ''I don’t believe I can take any of it back unless it’s given back to me.’’ {Mild hope. Self-deprecation}.

‘’You cannot take it back yet you still have life and limbs… so you have given everything to me freely.’’ The message is clear, if you haven't given it to me come take it and see if you keep your life and limbs.

{Consideration. Acceptance}. ‘’Yes, yes it seems I have freely given everything away.’’ {Sarcasm}.

The Eye of Argus glows allowing new features, "excellent". I delve deeper into their archives, absorbing information from the minds open to me for direct transference while perusing everything else for benefit or danger. Automatically they try to grant me membership which I by-pass, they try to stop me but it’s their own mechanisms at work against them.

Stupified realisation. ‘’You just became a servant to the Library,’’ the human says startled.

‘’Is that so?’’

‘’I’m released from my bond with that thing,’’ he gestures to the orb that’s an eye lightly trapped under my digits.

‘’This is true,’' I affirm what I see through this new eye. A 10 000 year old collection of information and thesis', most outdated and useless to me but interest nontheless.

It nods its fragile neck, testing its limbs in stretches and twists.

My mind is clear and much humanoid homology have I extracted from this Sachihiro's mind but gestures I’m not yet able to convey as flawlessly in this form as this human does.

‘’Then you must have taken the mantle of bearer of that eye.’’

‘’It is my eye now yes.’’

I see so much with it; vast swaths of information, experiments, secrets, lies propergated for aeons from across multiple worlds by an army of varied contributors. Truly a boon to have brought me so much treasure in so short a time, hmm... what to use this human for? Or is it enough reward to have started it on the path to cultivation and send it on its way with its life intact?

‘’It is your eye now? You say that like you have control over it.’’

‘’And you say you aren’t a clever thing.’’

Consideration. ‘’Why am I still alive? You clearly could have swatted me away as soon as you had all my possessions.’’

‘’Your possessions?’’

‘’My former possessions. The question stands mighty Draug.’’

‘’Do you seek death Sachihiro van Damage?’’

‘’I seek passage home, mighty Draug.’’

‘’A name that should not so easily be on your lips.’’

‘’Yet you are Draug are you not? The Smoking Ruin of Belgash,’’ a shiver of pleasure passes through me in remembrance. ‘’The Screaming Wails of Fired Frae,’’ ahh... that bitch Frae’s wails painted the sky pink with bloody misery, that was a pleasant evening. ‘’Draug, the Smoking Dragon under the Mountain.’’

{Proud. Pleased. Smug}. ‘’It has been some time since I’ve been praised so,’’ the human has a silvered tongue. I know exactly how to put it to use.

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‘’You no longer serve the Library or this minor god benefitting from your sightlessness, I have taken you under my protection none shall dare lay claim to you again.’’

I levitate it the inert Library orb it gifted me. ‘’This orb has much less invasive enchantments, it is acceptable for you to use in accessing Library resources.’’ It has no use to me now with the 4th eye the human so graciously delivered to me. Truly these Librarians are fools to use an eye of a fallen god for so mundane a purpose as spying from a single mortal’s perspective.

‘’I dub you, Herald of the Draug,’’ has a nice ring to it. ‘’You will be an announcer I send to those I would show favour with my presence and those I would bring destruction to. Your coming will be feared and sought after in equal measure, you will be cursed and blessed by many you come across for your coming will portent my own.’’

{Stubborn indignation.} ‘’My services are not so easily secured Mighty One,’’ {obstinate stubbornness. Inner peace. Self-knowledge. Resolve}. ‘’I am beholden to no one-‘’

‘’But those you choose,’’ I finish for him understanding him completely. Interesting path this Sachihiro van Damage has taken for himself, a path towards godhood but he has no idea what that truly means. Ahh, the innocent naivety of the young.

With a glance in my eyes, I show him the fae eyes studying him from across the world anchored to his spirit-body. I show him how he was manoeuvred by the Spirit Phosphorus to find the Library for it. I show him how the Library, through the sigil he provided established communications and trade with the Spirit without his knowledge. I show him how he has been most recently used as a pawn in the games of beings beyond his current understanding. I show him how his second location to find would benefit the Spirit more than he and how his third, guaranteeing him freedom from all spirits and gods that bind him will be his death.

A death ironically freeing him from all spirit bindings but also freeing the spirit of Phosphorus from any further karmic ties that might bind the two together.

He blinks like a dumb owl, but he isn’t wholly surprised or dismayed. Good, not a complete idiot then.

{Suspicion.} ''And you show me all this from the goodness of your heart.'' {Sarcasm. Worry. Tiredness}.

''See those you have been serving, knowingly or not your services are not as selective or lofty a thing as you imply. You are merely a tool, a lowly one at that. I want and need nothing from you, I do not trick you nor try to gain from you with trickery and deceit. What I want I take, what I don't want I discard and that is the end of the matter.

''To me your service is unnecessary, never will I be in need of a human being and still have pride in my own claws. All you are is a curiosity; a lowly human in the back end of a dead continent on an average planet currently getting ravished by those with more knowledge and strength than you. With the gifts I've taken you have bought your life, with the benefit I've garnered from them karma dictates I allow you within my presence to feed on my leavings like the parasite you are.

''Gaze into my eyes and know the truth of what I speak. You are nothing, less than nothing in the greater scheme of ages and aeons upon which I have made my battleground."

The human gazes into my eyes, seeing as deeply as I allow him and starts retreating back slowly without breaking eye contact.

Prey instincts deeply embedded in its psyche again recede as I disregard it to focus most of my attention through the Eye on the Library again.

{Indecision}. ''I have never been a herald,'' it says.

''You have always been a herald.''

They have a vast amount of confirmed information I have never before come across, truly the karmic tie with this human is getting more and more complicated. Oooh, this is an interesting spell matrix.

{Consideration}. ‘’What does being ‘herald of the Draug’ entail?’’

I convey with a glance.

‘’I can carry your messages and make known your will and intent but I will not carry out your sentences.’’ {Resolve}.

I build the spell matrix into the world with an Empowered Claw, feeling it activate filling me with power in a vacuum of pure ether. Closing it I test another, cutting sigils in the air and watching the spell activate into a mirror-like door into the Abyssal Plane where an eye as mighty as my own in my true form gazes back at me from across the veil. We acknowledge each other before the portal is shut, locked and discarded by the being on the other side in a show of strength, or panic.

Truly this Library has vast resources of information. I'm about the test another set of spell sigils when I notice the physical state of the human.

The human is trembling from having experienced the exchange, it survived that much aura fairly intact but not unaffected. Truly an interesting specimen this and rightly deserving of a greater reward than I have given it.

''My patience is not infinite,'' it must acknowledge its place as my servant before I can give it more than I already have.

*

Sachihiro

Nothing is as it seems.

In this life nothing is as it seems and I have no idea what I’m doing talking like this to this unfathomable creature.

To imagine there is some grand plan in my head to elaborately end with me fulfilling all my dreams successfully would be to lie to myself completely disregarding reality and the pitfalls of dealing with the powerful. This dragon-person thing has me utterly within its power to the point that i'm an amusement in my most lethal tantrums, this thing has even been in my head. It gives perspect on the gease of Phosphorus and the possible connections between my actions and more benefits for him, how did I miss that?

The way the Draug communicates is primal transcending words, glances, pheramones, aura and visions when gazing in those eyes. The words used are few but a lot is being spoken cutting to the core of every issue. Overall I have no fucken’ idea what I’m doing talking to this creature, none. I have no plan, i'm getting into situations way over my ability to handle and i'm winging it all the time. I'm stranded on another continent which may as well be another world with no plan but to go forward like a lost child loking to go home.

The feeling of coming face to face with that realisation is daunting and brings with it a lot of questions. Questions I’m now asking myself, questions only I can answer.

I’m tired. I’m scared. I’ve been living a nightmare in which I’m in a cold dark hole and can’t get home no matter what I do. Slowly enemies pick off my loved ones whilst I claw and fight and run with all my stamina to get home but I just can’t get out of the hole. I can't tell if I was having a nightmare or that's really my life.

There is nothing I can do about life, I have no control.

Sigh.

But I’m resolved. Through it all I have to choose who I am and be that person even if it means things take a turn for the worst because of it. I have no control of anything but myself and I have to believe that its enough to be true to myself because that’s all I have.

I see what the creature has shown me and I believe it. There is something about that way of conveying information that instinctively feels real. It wasn’t just looking at a play of my life but interpreting the creature’s interpretation of what it saw when it gazed into my life. .

‘’I have never been a herald,’’ I say delaying the decision I’ve already made.

‘’You have always been a herald.’’

Am I betraying myself for even considering this thing’s offer?

I gaze at the creature still sitting in its lotus with half-lidded eyes physically disregarding me while its psychic attention is heavily on me still. For some reason I can’t find words to dispute that statement, have I always been a herald?

I’ve been a spy, I’ve been a prostitute because I was a spy, I’ve done some shady tasks for some shady people and I bulk at being a messenger for a clearly powerful being. Not messenger even, herald. There are things I can’t compromise on but more than anything right now I need to get out of here. I need to get home.

‘’What does being ‘herald of the Draug’ entail?’’

I see myself walking through vast lands proclaiming the coming of Draug, ash and ruin following in my wake. I have audiences with Kings, Queens and slithering creatures of vile depths bringing word from Draug and receiving word for Draug from all manner of creatures in a myriad of scenarios. I receive tribute and carry out sentences in the name of Draug, The Ruin of Belgash.

‘’I can carry your messages and make known your will and intent but I will not carry out your sentences,’’ I say quickly recovering from whatever that was that filled my head with scenes.

[#####], I’m pushed back by a backlash of cold clean energy here and gone in an instant, leaving my skin tingling and my mind alert.

A lake of shining quicksilver blooms before me floating in the air, aura. Vast amounts of aura leave me deaf dumb and blind in all other senses but my perception of aura as an ocean of it presses down on me squeezing everything I am. This, this is true overwhelming power and it’s not even directed at me. Then its gone, leaving a bored looking humanoid with half lidded eyes still sitting where he was since first I found myself here.

I’m panting for breath trying to get a hold of myself.

''My patience is not infinite.’’

The words are a toll signalling my death turning my bowels to jelly.

I’m fucked, I’m so fucken’ fucked! Having seen what I’ve seen and felt what I just felt I know the gulf between us is insurmountable, I’m at this creature’s complete mercy.

With trembling limbs, bowels threatening to loose on the floor again I prostrate myself as best I can signalling my humility.

Yes Draug I know how inferior I am before you, but I will not tie myself anymore with ropes I cannot stomach.

‘’The honour of being Herald of the Draug is one I am unworthy of but one I would gladly accept if it didn’t compel me to carry out sentences decreed by the Draug,’’ I can speak your words but I will not be your sword ancient creature. Creatures lthis powerful do not tolerate 'no' for an answer hence I’m fucked here.

‘’Your resolve is plain. It is done then, I accept your service and its conditions. You will carry my mantle and my words when I have use for such now rise, herald and ask a boon.’’

Heart pounding I find the strength the rise and gaze at the creature in human skin, ‘’if the Draug is willing I would ask for passage home.’’

The thing snorts a chuckle,‘’the Draug is willing,’’ a portal blacker than the blackest black appears before me just large enough for me to walk through. ‘’Go home.’’