--- Atrog ---
"Watch out!" Maru shouted at Atrog.
Her warning allowed him to jump back just in time to avoid the touch of the Death Elemental that had suddenly sprung from the nearby crypt.
Touching a Death Elemental was bad news. Between his healing and Maru's connection to the celestial realm, he would have survived, but it would definitely have been unpleasant.
He quickly dispatched the elemental, then nodded his thanks to Maru, who returned a beautiful smile.
Before today, he hadn't even known that such a thing as Death Elementals existed, but after the past few weeks he wasn't surprised by it. They were traversing the Cataclysm Containment Zone around the royal palace of Oruk. Each Cataclysm Containment Zone was different, and it looked like this one was spawning elementals that were 'thematically appropriate for the area', as Lilian had put it.
Encountering Death Elementals in the crypt was unsurprising. They were incredibly dangerous in a fight, but Atrog still preferred them over the Bureaucracy Elementals they encountered earlier this month. It had taken them a full two weeks to traverse the office they spawned in, and Atrog still had nightmares about smudged and allegedly unreadable signatures that forced them to repeat entire requisition processes. They were without a doubt the most horrible monster he had ever encountered.
Luckily, fighting the Death Elementals in the crypt was much more straightforward.
He and Maru stood guard and waited patiently while Balron, the only other member of team Nundru that was still adventuring, disarmed the traps to the crypt: The final resting place of Queen Oruk herself, the founder of the country by the same name.
"Huh, that's new." Balron commented. "That enchantment wasn't a trap after all. At least not for us. It revealed a message: 'That you are both willing and able to decipher this enchantment without first triggering the adjacent Malornian Rune Network suggests that House Epalon is no longer culturally dominant. Section R-24 of the Trivian Accords is hereby activated'. It's signed by 'Queen Oruk', along with an authorization code."
There was clear awe in the dwarf's voice.
Atrog was impressed as well. "Looks like Queen Oruk is playing head games with modern politicians from beyond the grave. I'm glad that is not my problem. Let's report it to the Council when we get back."
Then he readied himself to open the door to Queen Oruk's crypt. He lowered his head slightly to give his reverence, but he did not let his guard down. The Queen appreciated pragmatism over symbolic acts, after all.
Luckily there were no further surprises. The crypt turned out to be empty, of course. Nobody present was surprised by that. The Queen had cheated death twice before, and frankly it would have been a letdown if her corpse actually was where it was supposed to be.
The crypt did contain what the Interim Council had sent them to fetch, however: The Queen's Last Will. Specifically, part 218 of her Will.
It contained the instructions to determine her successor.
---
"If condition 62 holds, refer to letter A-7, otherwise to letter A-8." The councilor read aloud from Oruk's Will.
"I believe we are all in agreement that condition 62 does hold?" He asked, and received a series of nods from everyone present.
No formal vote was necessary here. It really was obvious, and it was clear that none of the politicians here were going to insist on stupid technicalities. The odds were good that doing so would trigger a contingency Queen Oruk put in place just in case somebody tried to get clever with her, and that wouldn't end well for them.
"Letter A-7 refers to a prophecy. Please see the documents that are being handed out."
Oh, joy. Another prophecy.
Oruk was pragmatic. If it was possible to make use of a prophecy, she would do so. The problem was that she was also a scientist: She was known to have performed randomized controlled trials on prophecies before. This might be a Placebo prophecy instead of a real prophecy. He really hoped that was not the case. Determining the successor to the royal line was far too important to waste time with something like that, wasn't it?
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Next to him, Balron was already reading the handout: "This prophecy was written by a priest of Tonos."
Somebody groaned in agony.
Suddenly everyone was looking at Atrog. Only then did he realize that the sound had come from himself. Maru put her hand on his shoulder in sympathy and whispered: "I am so sorry."
Why did it always have to be Tonos? Couldn't they get prophecies by nice, sane gods instead, for once? Frankly, at this point he would even take a prophecy by Duna, if that option was on the table.
---
They were waiting in Bob the Senior Dungeon Builder's office in the newly founded CICE, the Center for Interplanar Cultural Exchange.
"There is no doubt about it," Bob said when he finished reading their report. "Oruk's prophecy is tied to the prophecy of your sword."
Atrog was confused. Did the fey really mean the sword he got from defeating Zephyrion the Genesis Dragon in a series of contests in the feywild? They weren't supposed to talk about that prophecy. More importantly, it did not make any sense.
"How does that work? Oruk created her prophecy back when she was still alive. Your trainee's friend explicitly told us that they made the prophecy up on the spot when they crafted the sword."
"Not so loud!" Bob replied. "Please don't point out mistakes in the universe. It is trying its best to be consistent, and you are being very rude. The timing of the prophecies doesn't matter, because the universe will pretend that the prophecy was as old as it needs to be. Who ever heard of a recent prophecy? All prophecies are ancient!"
Atrog felt like beating his head against a wall until the universe made sense again.
---
They were all beat up and exhausted.
It had taken them three weeks just to get to this mountain. Nobody had warned them that it was home to an utterly evil dragon.
But they had persevered and defeated the creature.
"I found it!" Maru shouted after the three of them spent half an hour sorting through its treasure hoard.
"The encryption on this document matches the password from the underwater ruin we visited last week. Let's see. It says we should go 'seek the ancient one at the Amber Mountains' next, and ask her for advice on gardening."
Atrog sighed in frustration. It was like following a trail of breadcrumbs, and there was no indication how close they were to their goal.
It all felt so needlessly complicated.
He really hoped Oruk had a good reason for it.
---
"If this letter has been opened, it means that the sword 'Legacy' has been retrieved through a series of absurd and frankly needlessly difficult tasks." The councilor read aloud.
Well, it was nice to see that Oruk was at least self-aware about the ridiculous tasks she had given them. He had to literally pull Legacy from a stone for some reason, and it broke in the process. Fortunately it turned out that it had a similar composition to the sword the fey had given him, so he was able to use the latter to reforge the former at a mythical forge. Legacy was now restored, and rested safely in his scabbard.
"The symbolic meaning of this act should be obvious, but is nevertheless explained in detail in appendix 30."
Wait. What?
"Furthermore, it is clear that Tonos is either still alive and relatively unchanged from his present personality, or a similar god with similar behavior patterns has taken his place. All tasks leading up to this were trials I designed in order to take advantage of narrative patterns. The only way someone could have followed all these steps successfully is if they were righteous and wise, and possessed other qualities desirable in a ruler. Otherwise Tonos would have caused them to fail."
Atrog had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Was this going where he thought it was going?
"Furthermore, the narrative trajectory clearly suggests that if this individual were to become king or queen, then Oruk would be ushered into a golden age. As such, I hereby declare the individual who retrieved Legacy to be the successor to the throne. See appendix 63 for details. Refer to appendix 64 in case any of these assumptions are false or ambiguous."
Oh gods. It really was! They were going to make him the king!
Then the Speaker of the Interim Council turned to him and said: "We have already checked and verified the assumptions in the appendices. Our verdict is clear: Congratulations, Paladin Atrog Rarzug, on inheriting the throne."
Then he added "Your Highness", and all the assembled nobles bowed.
Atrog was too stunned to speak.
He looked to his companions for support.
Balron was in tears. "That was beautiful." He said quietly. Atrog was pretty sure he wasn't referring to his coronation, but to the thoroughness of Oruk's system. Well, his friend had his priorities straight.
Maru took his hand in hers and declared confidently: "You will get through this."
She understood him. Being king was not going to be fun. But having his friends and his lover by his side would make it easier.
He looked into her eyes, and they embraced and kissed each other.
When she released him, he turned to the Interim Council. He knew that his first words were going to be important. But after all the misery of the past couple of months, there was only one thing on his mind:
"For my first act as king, I declare Tonos worship illegal."
The room was silent for a few seconds, before the Speaker of the Council responded: "I'm sorry, your Highness, but we can't do that. The Queen also added some notes to this document. It says here specifically that we should ignore any demands to ban Tonos worship for the first two months of your reign, because hating that god would be, and I quote, 'a very understandable but nevertheless harmful emotional overreaction'."
Atrog felt his soul leave his body.
"Magnificent." Balron commented.