Grim felt himself move forward as though in a dream, completely devoid of thoughts and movements. His mind was in shock as he realized he was going to meet the man that dragged him into this new life. It would be the first time since his awakening almost four years ago.
An organ was reaching a climactic crescendo from inside the room as a wordless choir wailed in despair. Grim entered the room and it felt as though the darkness of the doorway was peeled back from his eyes. He almost stumbled upon seeing the Arch Lich again. Grim was put right back to when he first saw those blue fiery eyes inside that regal gold and black skull.
The Arch Lich Maximus sat upon a throne carved from a rock of black so deep that it drank the light away from all the sources in the room. The sharply armored man exuded a supreme confidence. Barely contained power seemed to radiate from him, it made Grim feel as if he was walking underwater. Grim felt like a bug walking towards a colossal god of death and destruction.
He reached the base of the throne and immediately dropped to one knee as though the weight of a thousand mountains was trying to crush him from above. Shadows whispered to him, telling him to run, hide, or do anything to avoid the attention of this supreme being.
A feverish pitch began with the music. The choir sounded as though they were all about to be thrown into the depths of hell with how frenetically they sang their fear. The shadows screamed at him to flee. There was no light except where the emperor sat. The lich began to laugh in a gravelly tone that echoed off the walls and made Grim tremble as he knelt there.
“Please girls, stop this for the love of the realms! He seems as though he may die any moment now from fear!” Maximus wheezed through his laughter. His gauntleted hands clutched his stomach as he tried to regain his composure.
Grim abruptly felt the pressure vanish from his shoulders and he would have toppled over if not for his spear that he had gripped with white knuckles. The lights in the room surged back and blinded him. The music also stopped abruptly.
Blinking his eyes to clear them Grim saw an entirely different image in front of him. The Emperor had descended from the throne and was holding a hand out to help him up. No more malice or fear crowded down upon him. There was no mountain that made his shoulders stoop low. His mind felt so strange after being subjected to such a complete turnaround.
He reached up and they grasped hands, the Arch Lich then hauled him to his feet. Coming into contact with the Emperor made him feel as though he was touching a magical power conduit. This being held Power.
“Up we go,” Maximus chuckled, clearly still amused by the show of theatrics. Grim was at a loss of words. This made him completely unprepared for when he was thrown aside by a pair of what, at first felt like dainty hands but turned out to be a pair of catapult arms. They launched him to the side and made him lose his feet.
As he careened to the side, another pair of hands, these ones completely indelicate, grabbed hold of him in a vice grip and yanked him back upright. He looked up and saw a familiar face that he associated with drills and level-headedness. The grin he saw on Matron Xena’s sharp face was a small comfort as it probably meant she wasn’t there to teach any physical lessons, probably.
Matron Xena was a full head taller than Grim, making him tilt his head back to look at the half-orc woman. Her gray skin attested to her Shadow Tribe heritage, and her fully armored figure gave no doubt to her warrior ways. Beast bones lay over her red, heavy battle armor in a decorative style rather than a defensive one.
"Hello, pupil of mine. The fact that you were tossed aside so easily shows how truly ravaged you were by these charades," Xena jested, her gruff voice was cheerful despite Grim's lack of perfection. “I wouldn’t have expected you to last against a setup from three Matrons so I will give you a pass on this failure.”
“Three?” Grim asked, still bewildered from all of the events happening this quickly. He clasped his perfectly clear helmet to his belt to better look around.
“Yes… the two of us were bored… and Ember wasn’t happy about her time being wasted while seeing our husband… So we decided to have some fun.” A new honeyed voice Grim had never heard before floated down from above the throne.
Repelling down on a swing made of shadows, a slender female figure alighted next to the throne. Pale skin appeared to shine from beneath a black cocktail dress. It was open in the front and had a train that ran behind her. However, the more Grim looked, the more the train seemed to drift apart as she swung. It started to look less like a dress and more like extra appendages instead.
As disconcerting as that was, her face held the strangest sight. Two murky blue eyes looked down upon him. Her face appeared to have a mask of glitter around her eyes at first glance. Upon closer inspection he saw what was really twinkling down at him. They were eyes.
“Sayah, you’re almost as bad as Jasmine and Lily,” Maximus chided her. Grim's launch cannon, Ember, had fully embraced the Emperor with her head resting on his chest looking sweet and innocent.
“Ember, my love, please refrain from acting out in jealousy,” he tilted her head up with a hand and looked into her eyes as she pouted. “I know we don’t get as much time together as you would like. But that is not my guest’s fault, it is mine. As an apology, how about I sit with you on your first day today?” Maximus negotiated.
“And steal my spotlight?” she teased. She pretended to consider it before saying, “Fine, but only if you don’t take any audiences. Otherwise all you’ll do is work.”
“Half a day of audiences then, and you may lead them as you would like.” Maximus counter offered. Everything seemed to be playing out as though a well rehearsed play, one that they put on a thousand times.
“I don’t even get to spar with you and you sit here spoiling her,” Xena admonished him. Ember shot her a glare without any real heat behind it.
“Luna will not like this idea either… You know how much time she spends running around amending Ember’s… diplomatic devastations.” Matron Sayah said with a too wide, shark toothed grin.
Maximus tilted his head back and threw his arms out in exasperation, “Alright, alright! Xena and I will put on a sparring show the next time she reign’s in the Unbound. I will personally consult Luna and oversee the diplomacies. Ember, does this sound reasonable?”
“Fine, I find these terms agreeable,” she imperiously consented. The other’s assented, while Grim stood awkwardly from behind Xena, doing his best to act as though he couldn’t hear any of this. It all seemed so strange for some of the most powerful people he knew to be bickering with each other like this. They sounded just like a family, a very strange one but…
This thought seemed to twist inside of Grim. He felt alone, without anyone close that he could count on. His only interactions since waking up had been him training and learning the realms that lay out there. He had never been outside of The Unbound except for the first time he had awakened. Granted this place was strange and mysterious in many ways but no one seemed to stay forever. Not that he really ever had been given any free time.
When there wasn’t any sparring practice he had been sent into the libraries to learn of the realms and other topics. To read, write, and “expand his mind” as Matron Echo had put it. He hardly had to sleep, which left plenty of time to cram as many things into his skull as everyone could. All for his own good.
He had first woken as a shell of an individual, without knowledge of anything. Maximus had gifted him a very basic knowledge of how everything worked directly into his consciousness. It was supposed to speed up his learning and act as a shortcut to elementary knowledge. Otherwise, they said it would take decades for him to develop.
They all told him he was a toddler walking around with power he didn’t understand. If he couldn’t develop a foundation for himself then he would be easily manipulated into doing unspeakable things. Not that unspeakable things were inherently looked down upon by those around him. For some reason it was the free will portion or lack of a personality that really struck a fire into everyone’s eyes. They said his life would be better forfeit then as a slave to the whims of others.
This was a curious thought since it seemed that everyone else here served the Arch Lich, Emperor Maximus.
“Now then!” the Emperor called out to everyone. “It is time that we get on to the matter at hand so the festivities may commence for our reigning matron Ember. Bob if you would remove these silly obstructions for something less formal.”
“Of course, sire,” said a familiar floating skull as it rounded the corner of the throne. The caretaker of The Unbound was currently engulfed in flames of black and red as his actual skull sported a hot rod red and orange coloring. The demilich opened his mouth and a vortex appeared in front of him to suck in the opulent throne causing Matron Sayah to scramble out of the vortex’s effective area. A round table with six comfortable looking chairs were spat out after.
“Please, sit everyone,” Bob directed. Every Matron respectfully nodded and intoned their thanks to the skull before sitting in a chair. The Emperor took a seat facing the door and motioned for Grim to sit opposite of him. Somewhere in the walk to the table, he had changed into a sleek red and black shirt with a hooded cloak. Bob took the seat to Grim’s right and Sayah on his left while Xena and Ember flanked the Emperor. Ember slid her chair to sit directly next to Maximus, causing every other matron to roll their eyes.
“How are you, Grim?” Bob inquired. Grim had often asked questions of the skull as he was one of the few people always present in his life. There was an attachment to Bob as he seemed to treat him with the same formal tone and always attempted to answer his questions to the best of his abilities while he studied in the libraries. As much of an attachment as one had to an ever present guardian and caretaker.
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“I’m good Bob, thank you,” Grim replied as he settled more comfortably into his chair. He slotted his spear into a convenient holding slot attached to the chair and regarded the rest of the gathered crowd.
Ember was looking at him with a bored but content face while next to Maximus. Xena was observing him with her teacher’s watchful eye. Sayah was observing her sharp nails and doing everything but looking at him with her face, though there always seemed to be an eye on him. Maximus looked at him with those blue flames. The mask remained the same black and gold coloration it had always been.
“I called you here to offer you an opportunity,” the Arch Lich divulged to him after everyone had settled. “The Matrons have kept me up to date on all of your training for the last three years. I know things must have been hectic and chaotic for you ever since you woke up from the enchanted sleep I put you in all those years ago. It couldn’t have been easy for you either, especially given the teachers that you were assigned.” He looked at Xena, pointedly.
“If you want good quality weapons you must beat out the defects in the forge,” she shrugged, unconcerned.
“I agree, though I wouldn’t consider it to be wise to always use so many life and death situations on such a promising pupil,” Maximus countered.
“If he had died, he wouldn’t have been as promising as we thought,” Xena explained as though obvious. This caused Sayah and Ember to smile as though recalling a common joke amongst themselves.
Comforting, Grim thought to himself.
“Regardless,” the Emperor sighed, “I feel as though we may have put you through the gauntlet of matrons for long enough. So, I would like to propose an opportunity for you to get out of The Unbound for a bit. Sadly, due to the nature of this opportunity and its importance, I cannot divulge much more to you before you give me a sure yes or no answer.”
“I know this isn’t an ideal situation but I want you to think about whether or not you are wanting to continue on here or start coming into your own self. I feel as though your consciousness is finally ready to start developing without the guiding hand we have provided. What do you think, Grim?”
The statement seemed to hang in the air before Grim. The Emperor was clearly looking forward to telling him more. However, everything he knew about life outside of here made him feel as though he needed more information. He knew better than to take unnecessary risks. Something inside of him seemed to stir to life, though. The want for more, for something outside of this small world he was subjected to.
This felt too uncertain for him. Ultimately, he gave Maximus the answer that felt safest After all, he was speaking to one of the most powerful beings in all the realms. He couldn’t forget that even though the Emperor seemed to be a very kind and reasonable person. If the mission was to be kept under wraps before he even knew about it, then it must be extremely important.
“I don’t know if I’m necessarily ready for anything of such importance yet, sir. I have only a small amount of experience compared to others. Maybe there would be a less secretive or important mission that I could do for you? As I would love the experience and the opportunity to pay you back for the generosity you have shown me so far,” Grim explained nervously.
The emperor had slowly settled back into his chair the more Grim had explained his thoughts and carefully refused the offer. Maximus looked bored, with his head resting to the side on a fist, even though the skull looked to carry the same expression. Those fiery blue eyes seemed to grow a bit duller as his interest waned.
“Where do you see yourself here Grim, in the Unbound faction?” Maximus questioned him.
Grim shifted, palms slick, answering, “I haven’t really thought about it much sir. I’ve been trying to adjust as best I can, as it seems like there’s always been the next lesson.”
Maximus’ voice grew low, “So… No goals? No ambitions? You’ve been here for years, receiving, honestly, some of the best training and mentorships that could be given to you. Yet, you haven’t thought even once about what you would do with these things? And when asked you seem to blame your teacher’s scheduling?”
Grim paled. Alarms started going off in his head as he realized what he had implied, “No sir, I meant nothing untowards to my teacher’s.”
Grim stole a glance over to his mentor, Xena. She looked stone faced, with the barest hint of disappointment behind her eyes. Sayah was cleaning her immaculate nails, none of her eyes looking at him anymore. Bob was… still a floating skull and gave off no indication of any emotion. Ember, however, had actually sat up and somehow had moved her chair, silently, away from the Emperor.
Grim began to fidget in his seat a bit as the silence stretched from an endless second, into an endless minute. Was he letting these people down? Did they actually want him to do this? What was the purpose of bringing him here just to give him an impossible situation without explaining it?
The lonely feeling began to increase inside his gut as he felt further from this table. These paragons of the realms. He had never felt himself a star pupil by any means, he often scraped through by the nearest of margins, only earning grudging remarks from his tutors and trainers. Very rare occasions had he actually been celebrated for his accomplishments. The day he chose his name, the time he chose his style of fighting, the time he chose to entwine two schools of magic, and even his first ingenuitive beast takedown.
But truthfully he had begun to crave being a part of something, yet every time he tried to conform to a group's ways, he had been driven harder as if in punishment. Every time he took the safe and efficient route it seemed unimpressive to everyone, even getting him berated from time to time. It didn’t make sense as there were common ways to do things for a reason. He had said as much to them. The matrons had only looked at him with pity the times he had voiced these thoughts.
“Another cog in the machine,” Matron Echo had sighed.
“Another soldier fighting wars they had no stake in,” Matron Xena had rebuked.
“A blade without a wielder,” Matron Alyx had scoffed.
“So… uninspired,” Maximus sneered, as his eyes shrunk to slits. “Always wanting a safe path or efficiency, yearning for acceptance, and always needing to be told what to do. Very rarely showing intuition, it’s as if you would prefer to be stuck in place your entire life, marching to someone else’s tune. Maybe I should encase you back in ice and have you decorate The Unbound for eternity, as you seem so keen to stay here forever.”
Phantom pain seemed to erupt from Grim as he remembered the feeling after waking up from that terrible nightmare of sleep that he had been subjected too. The sleep was nothing but demented children's stories that taught you life lessons. The hard life lessons. The lessons you would never actually tell children.
After seeing them over and over, he had then gone through all the knowledge that had been trapped in his head until his consciousness had finally accepted it as part of himself and not as foreign memories.
Then he woke up, and the pain had started. The frozen blood of a dead god had slowly trickled into his body as it melted. There had been no stoic setting of the jaw to silently suffer, no supernatural fortitude that had eased the pain, no help had come for him. There was just a skull mask and blue flaming eyes that looked down at him.
There was just that beautiful scenery of the realms that had kept him going. One of the first things he had ever seen in this life. The desire in his gut to be there, to see them all.
Magic had flowed from the Arch Lich’s hands, slowing the melting of the ice. Giving his consciousness just enough of a respite to not be driven to madness. They had sat there for an innumerable amount of time. Grim had pleaded for it to stop, screamed for mercy, for a break, for anything. The arch lich had mumbled something indistinguishable and then told him.
“Power can’t be free, even though we all wish it were. Someday, you will be grateful you suffered for the chance that this will give you. The hard path is what forges us stronger,” Maximus had spoken sorrowfully before Grim had slipped back into pain again.
“Maximus…” Ember quietly pleaded, back in the present, as she leaned towards him, “Have some mercy for the child.”
Everyone else sat there as if bracing to weather a storm. Grim couldn’t help but be at a loss, unsure of what to do to fix this situation. He had thought this was the right answer. That it would make the Emperor happy to see that he had known he wasn’t ready for such an undertaking.
“What are the questions you should be asking, and should’ve asked from day one?” Maximus placed his hands on the table as he continued to stare at Grim.
Grim felt staked down under the piercing gaze. All his being that he had accumulated over these short years laid bare before this titan of death that had seen millenium pass.
“I-I-I don’t know sir…” Grim floundered, drowning under the sea of pressure radiating from the man.
“You should be asking, WHY!” Maximus stormed, eyes growing larger and angry. “Don’t you wish to understand why you were where you were? Why, you have no memories of a life prior? Why, I have devoted so much into your upbringing?”
Grim’s eyes looked down towards his hands, ashamed. Only to be bowled over backwards as he was blasted backwards by a shockwave of force as Maximus smashed through the table and began walking towards him over its ruins.
“WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE?” the Emperor roared at him, fists clenched to his side.
Grim scrambled away from the enraged man. Desperately trying to think up an answer that would appease the Arch Lich. No one intervened to save him.
“WHERE IS YOUR PASSION?” bellowed Maximus, following Grim’s crazed scramble away from him.
Grim’s back collided with an invisible wall and he used it to scramble up to his feet. Was this the end? His gut seemed to twist at the thought.
“DO YOU EVEN WANT ANYTHING FOR YOURSELF?” the specter of Death raged. Grim was acutely reminded of another time his life was so fully in this man’s hands. The day they first met. What he thought was his gut twisting in fear, turned out to be something he hadn’t felt since the first day of his existence. That pit in his soul that demanded to be filled, woke up.
Maximus grasped his shoulders power gathering, flaming eyes boring into his soul, “WHAT WILL BE YOUR PURPOSE?” The words released the power he had built up and shuddered Grim to his core. Grim felt a surging answer resonate from within and burst from his lips in a cascade of primal power, altering his voice.
“I shall be the embodiment of the unknown! Adventurer, Conqueror, and Battlemage shall be my titles! Unquenchable is my thirst for the next challenge! Indomitable my will! Adaptable my thoughts! Chaos will be my teacher and through it I shall thrive!” Grim screamed as if the crescendo of a chant.
Then he sagged, exhausted from what felt like a veritable fountain of magic releasing from inside him. And for the third time in his short existence he blacked out in front of the Arch Lich, again.