“Ah, yes. Very sorry,” Ichiro immediately replied, offering the pair another set of bows.
“No, it’s a fair question… over which even our kind has found no accordance,” George said, waving away Ichiro’s slip with a reassuring smile. His easy expression hung there for another long second before he continued, his smile fading into a shadow of itself as his words grew heavier.
“I am afraid neither Edna nor I have ever had the talent for reading the Weave like some of the others, so we see only hints of what is coming. But we knew enough to position ourselves where it mattered most, and an old friend filled in some of the gaps when she came through last.”
“I’m sorry, I still don’t understand,” Ichiro responded, face drawn as thoughts raced through his mind, clouding his thinking.
He had just felt power far beyond that of any of the forces he knew on the plane. Why were they here? What were their goals? If they wanted something, why not just make it happen by force?
“It’s ok dear… we have revealed something very difficult to you, but George and I have been watching you, and we think you have true potential.” Edna said, lifting her hand placatingly as she tried to explain, “True power is much deeper than ‘might makes right.’ Every action has a cost and every choice we have ever made changed things exponentially. Some changes, we were able to foresee, but many others were completely unintended.
“No…” she breathed out, the many lines of her face deepening in something akin to exhaustion, “It has been a very long time since we tried to force our surroundings to fit our desires. It was, and still is, a fruitless endeavor,” she finished, some heat entering her voice for the first time as she finished her explanation.
“Young man,” George interjected, giving Edna a significant look, “I will tell you our great secret, one that very few will ever hear, and even fewer will take the time to grasp. There is no greater act of Endurance than to wait for an appointed time,” he said gravely.
“And there is no greater Strength than meekness.” Edna added with a long-suffering sigh, “What the System has offered you is only the smallest sliver of the power that hides behind our names, and I am afraid you are going to need much more than a quick blade and strong arm to win the fight that is coming.”
A deep bell chimed in some metaphysical space as they released their truths to him, reverberating through the Weave.
The declarations they had shared revealed a depth of understanding that was so profound that it slammed into him, effortlessly moving through his defenses and leaving him feeling naked. They watched him struggle to internalize their words as a storm of pressing emotions continued to rage through him at the revelation of their natures.
The part of him that had spent a lifetime investing in the meditation Skill as his mother had handed down to him, knew that he had just received a goldmine of insight. He could mine this moment for years, sharpening his Will and his understanding of the Weave all at once.
But the other part of him, the much more visceral and immediate self, could not help but voice one final plea, “Can you not do more for us? I have seen you with the children, you love them! And even with my limited abilities, I know that everything we have built here faces a terrible end,” Ichiro groaned out beseechingly, struggling through the weight of the truths they had just shared.
“We are bound by an ancient oath, and while some have forgotten their promises, we refuse to do so.” George answered, showing the smallest hint of anger at the question, “No matter what it may look like, we aren't God, boy. Our understanding is limited, and we too, have parts to play. It is for this very reason we came here to speak with you.”
“The battle is shifting, and your people must bring everything they have to this fight… but you will not be forced to leave behind those you love, unprotected. It is in this way we will participate in the coming conflict. Throw all of your strength into the Contested Lands and trust that those you leave behind are safe as long as you do so. Nothing will touch this place while you fight. But if you lose…
“Then not even we will be able to turn back the tide,” George finished solemnly.
Ichiro took it all in, taking a long look at the gaping opening in the mountain that had once been their temple. The new hope of his people. “Then, Origin has not left us?”
George smiled, allowing some of the weight to fall from his features, “Now that is the right question boy. You know what is against you… Do not forget who is for you. I can not say I understand what will come, but in my long life, I have never found reason to give up hope that the beginning of all things will have a suitably glorious end.”
…
Tilly, Level 70 Son of Flame
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Hiro disappeared to the sound of a sudden, sweeping wind scoring the top of the mountain clean. Tilly belatedly dropped his outreached hand and covered his eyes until the wind died down. As the remaining bone dust settled, he did a slow scan of his surroundings. Hiro’s appearance wasn’t the only surprise to come from his acceptance of the new Facet’s Patronage.
The piles of dragon’s bone had almost instantly decayed, blowing away with the increased wind. The Scorch enchantment, burned into the structure of the mountain itself, glowed brightly shifting through multiple hues as it struggled to integrate the greatly increased power source. At the center of the unnaturally flat space, the throne was completely gone, and in its place, an altar of unhewn stone had risen, upon which sat a small, heartbreakingly beautiful bloom.
Blue and white flames danced around the flower, burning, but not consuming. This same scene had pulled him in each time he had visited the inner chamber of the temple, but now it had been changed. Where once, the bloom had shot up as a seedling on the altar's surface, there was now a crystalline platform surviving as its base. The substance seemed to shift from solid to liquid to gas depending on how he turned his head. The change was subtle to the overall feel of the altar but as soon as he noticed it, he realized that the flames and bloom within them had doubled in size.
He shook his head, remembering Hiro’s last words, and reached into his jacket pulling out the continuously twisting seed, looking for a place to plant the Auction House opening, but as he surveyed the ground around him… he got an unsettled feeling in his gut.
From off to the side, Brokenridge’s huge shoulders began to shift, and he took in a long weary breath, “I can feel it… My sire’s mantle has passed to me.”
The dragon’s timbre displayed none of the triumph Tilly had expected. Instead, his words were marked by a new weight, imbued with a subtle but powerful element of introspection.
Sounds of otherworldly screams echoed from another one of the Peaks, and Tilly could see distant aerial specks dotting the horizon as more came to claim a place of power in the Contested Lands.
The ground around him had begun to bloom with fresh grace and budding wildflowers… As badly as they needed it, this was not the place to plant the seed… it was too close to the center of their power. Looking back over at the dragon, Tilly lifted up the seed in his direction, as the enemy's cries grew closer.
“I have a way to bring the warriors from the Alliance here to defend this place. Do you have any idea where I should plant this?”
“No, despite what my sire believed, this is no longer the home of our people. It has been seized by the System for this contest. Any authority I had over this mountain was destroyed with that abomination of a throne…” The dragon answered, looking away from the battle taking place nearby and taking in the altar that had arisen where his sire had once ruled.
The seed bent and twisted in Tilly’s hand, and he felt the urgency of their situation building, “Well, I’m going to run and try and find a place to plant this. Don’t get too caught up in the fighting without me,” he called, turning to take off down the side of the mountain to look for a location that felt right.
“-I will not be here when you return,” Brokenridge answered slowly.
Tilly stopped in his tracks whipping around to face the dragon who was looking off into the distance, away from the coming forces of Corruption.
“You’re running?!” Tilly burst out in surprise. He hadn’t really thought about the dragon’s role in the coming larger conflict… but his running away had never even occurred to him.
The dragon’s head snapped back to focus on Tilly, his eyes regaining some of their lost ferocity, “No, Two-legs! I am not running… My sire forgot our purpose, but I remember. We were entrusted with these mountains and that jewel for a reason. I will see my people returned to their former glory,” he said resolutely, eyes straying off to the opposite horizon again. “I can feel them now… the last of my kin. We must not miss this chance to regain our honor.”
It was then that Tilly’s shocked gaze finally produced an identifier for the dragon.
Brokenridge, Level ??? Draconic Sovereign [Champion of Origin’s Breath]
“What the-” Tilly barely had time to mutter, before Brokenridge gathered himself in a crouch, shouting, “Do not give up what I have won for you, human! Hold until I return, and we will smite Soulbane upon these mountains, just as our peoples did long ago!”
With that, he exploded up into the air, shooting off into the distance at a level of acceleration that defied all reason. The wind of his explosive exit buffeted Tilly, filling the air with the last of the bone dust as he struggled to adjust to the pace of events.
The inhuman screams were growing in number and sounded closer than ever. Tilly spit the dust from his mouth and turned, diving back into a sprint. He didn’t have time to figure things out, he needed to get this seed in the ground, and his instincts were telling him that he would regret it if he didn’t choose the right place.
As he leaped over the edge of the mountain and started the steep climb down at a full run, a notification flashed before his eyes.
The Battle Continues!
2 Peaks claimed by the Dawning Coalition
1 Peak claimed by Corruption
3 Peaks unclaimed.
He looked up from his run, seeing a distant swarm of the flying creatures moving toward another Peak, leaving behind a thick cloud of them on the first.
The sound of deep clanging was ringing out from the Peak nearest to the approaching enemy, its top swathed in an impenetrable darkness that continually swallowed more of the flying creatures. Occasionally bursts of blue fire would explode from some part of the domain, but the fire did nothing to disperse the thick darkness of Hiro’s domain.
They were holding, providing a significant distraction so that Tilly could establish a beachhead for their forces in the Contested Lands.
Now he just needed to get it done.
He ran downslope wildly, reaching out with all of his senses for something that would relieve the eerie wrongness that had settled in his stomach at the thought of burying the seed near the altar.
“Psst, hey kid!”
Tilly, slid to a stop, having just run past one of the large openings he had found on his way up. Turning, he found the same Raptor Magnus guy, casually leaning against the wall of the tunnel leading deep into the center of the mountain.
“You’re still here?”
The reptilian’s smile turned downward, “What a rude question. And after I went through all that trouble to find you a place to put that seed.”
The Battle Continues!
2 Peaks claimed by the Dawning Coalition
2 Peaks claimed by Corruption
2 Peaks unclaimed.
Tilly’s eyes widened as another notification flashed unbidden before his eyes.
“Not long until they head this way, huh?” The Magnus hissed smugly.