Chapter 280, 2/3

Chapter 280, 2/3

Erick wasnt dead, but he certainly wasnt alive, either.

He had no body, but he had something of a soul and a mind, perhaps.

The only thing he truly had was a purpose.

To Understand.

Even his enemies. Even people who deserved no good things. Even the worst people imaginable.

Erick still tried to understand.

And then, to help in a constructive way.

- - - -

Nhatuan was an old man doing the job of young men, because he could, and they could not.

He stepped among the reeds, gently pressing them aside as his feet sank into the mud. It cloyed, that mud. His feet were bare, so he did not get overly stuck, but still this was a danger. The reed-liars could catch him and drain him dry if he stumbled into one of them. The mudhoppers might hop into his body, and turn him into mud.

He had to brave this danger, anyway.

Nhatuan was too old for this shit, but he was still one of the strongest hunters of their village, even at 98 years old. He had never accreted as he should have, or else he would be living a lot longer than this But what was the point of accretion? To live longer under the knives of the Hollow elves? If he had accreted he would have been taken from his family, from his wife and his adopted kids, and then all of their grandchildren. The City took everyone who could accrete. No. This was a better life by far. Even Nhatuan, who had had no children of his own, and had thus helped raise all the other children in the village, was still useful, just as he was.

Nhatuan was old and infertile, but this was a good life anyway.

A life I will spend well, or die trying, he muttered, as he moved. Cloak me Dark, I beg of you.

He snuck through the reeds, silent as a snake, right up to the walls of the castle. The guards above didnt see him. Nhatuan was good at blending. He was a hunter, and he hunted well, his small knacks of power serving him well, but he was a hunter of beasts and not of men.

The men in the castle were hunters of men, and Nhatuan was going to die tonight, one way or another, but he was going to make sure his family survived

A window was open? Just a single leap above the waters? What fool would leave a window open that low! They were begging to be drained by the reed-liars!

Nhatuan thanked the Dark and began climbing, his heart racing hard, his blood pumping harder. His mind was clear and the hunt was on. He scaled into the building, grabbing stone that seemed too easy to grab, finding the window not actually open at all, but half-open. Easily broken, though.

A guard slept in the room. Sleeping by a window? The insanity. Even a cracked-open window was an invitation to be killed out here, at this hour.

Nhatuans blade came down in the mans throat and then whipped around into the mans chest, granting him his requested death.

The man died with eyes flashing open and gurgles that were easily mistaken for the noise of bugs in the swamp.

Nhatuan breathed hard. Too hard. He had never killed a man except in his dreams. Those dreams seemed so far away, and yet so close, on this night.

Gods own luck smiled upon him that night. The warriors were drunk off of a feast, and Nhatuan found the drunken warriors were easy pickings. Sleeping evils easy to kill. Had everyone taken leave of their senses tonight? A party in enemy territory, held with this much alcohol? Insanity.

Maybe they would all die tonight, as they should have died decades ago when the Hollow elves first came to this land, conquering. Back then they had been a lot stronger than this, though. But were they, really? Nhatuan lamented all the years lost to the insanity of believing these people strong! The ache and pain of their rule! It was all so ephemeral!

Nhatuan was so much stronger than he thought he was. All he had needed was the courage to act.

He should have done this long ago.

And yet...

Nhatuan made it all the way up to the leaders rooms, which were unlocked. Nhatuan was crying by now, but they were silent tears. He had not wanted to do this. He had thought that it would be harder. But it was not hard at all.

These men were rumored to have orders to kill the villages of the entire swamp and prepare for the expansions of the capital, but they were lax in their duties. They were lax in their patrols. They were not lax in the beating of men and women in the village, and the claiming of First Nights of all new wives, and the theft of every pretty thing anyone ever been found or made in the villages

Nhatuan breathed in the Dark, and focused.

The man in the rooms ahead had beaten and raped Nhatuans granddaughter last week in the process of stealing the necklace of gold that Nhatuan had made for her.

That had been the final breaking point.

No more.

Nhatuan stalked down the stone hallway, the shadows swirling around, the evertorches on the walls making the darkness seem even blacker. He stepped through the black, and his knife became a claw, though he did not notice the claw at all. His senses expanded, though he did not notice the expansion at all. He did not notice how his clothes fell away, and how a delusion he had wrapped himself in finally gave way to a truth.

There was a reason he was a good hunter, and why the reed-liars and the mudhoppers and the fanged beasts of the marsh avoided him, except for when he went in to their territory. There was a reason he had such an easy time killing these men. There was a truth he was still unwilling to see.

But Erick saw it.

There, for the ride, Erick saw Nhatuans truth.

Nhatuan slipped into the head guards chambers, clipping little alarms in the air that were stretched like webs across the door, breaking their power and preventing them from signaling. He had always had that knack, that ability to just break magic. It was necessary when hunting weavers in the marshes, for weaver threads were always filled with alarms. Nhatuan had never had a second thought about how he could do that, and every time he tried to teach his adopted children they could never grasp his simple explanations.

Sometimes people had knacks that they couldnt explain.

Nhatuan slipped into the bed chambers of the man he would kill and make everything better.

The man lay in bed

To the side, chained to a wall, was a woman. She was Aliani; the girlfriend to Nhatuans favorite grandson. She was thought lost to the city. She was an excellent seamstress. She had told everyone how she had gained a big opportunity in the city, and so they had a big party for her and gave her gifts and she left. That was what had happened.

This is also what had happened.

Aliana had a chain around her neck and she lay on a reed mattress on the floor. She had a bowl of water and a chamberpot next to her bed, on opposite sides of her area. She had no clothes and only a thin blanket. She shivered as she slept.

Nhatuan had been crying for the pain he was inflicting tonight.

His tears dried.

The Dark visited him as Nhatuan stared down at the head guard.

This man was the cause of the villages problems.

Nhatuan had killed everyone else of note in the entire castle, so it was no trouble to start the head guards execution with a slash across the throat and hands, quick as a flicker of desire and intent. The man woke, unable to speak, unable to manage magic with his hands, unable to defend himself at all. His eyes were wide open and he gurgled profusely as Nhatuan began disassembling the man.

He started with the mans feet.

His screams were justice.

When he was done, he noticed that Aliana was awake and huddled in the corner, quietly crying, trying to make herself unseen.

She was quiet pathetic, wasnt she?

She probably could have killed that man herself, had she the heart to break out of her station

There was a mirror.

Nhatuan saw himself in the mirror

Erick saw himself in the mirror as a very young white dragon with a leviathan-like body, maybe 3 meters long. Underfed. Still full of rage, and yet now, full of surprise. Mana poured out of Nhatuans body in that moment, deepening the Darkness all around, and somehow Erick focused inward, realizing that he had deluded himself into believing things that were not true. He had told himself those dreams when he was young were just that; dreams. He told himself that he was not a dragon. That he did not escape the marsh and imitate a boy and then ate that boy and took his place in that family. Good people did not do that. Good people like him, like the boy Nhatuan, did not kill.

Thats what his real parents had told Erick, had told Nhatuan, that he was really their good child, and Erick was a good boy. That is what Erick had believed for so long, easily ignoring the looks his parents gave him when they thought he wasnt looking.

Erick/Nhatuan was a good boy. He was a good boy, and not a misshapen dragon. He was a good boy, who helped everyone. He was a good boy.

Good boys dont murder 23 castle guards.

But great boys did.

Erick coiled power into himself, like he had finally opened his mouth to drink the rain that he had been denying his body all these decades. It was easy for him to become more than he appeared to be; to become who he was.

Nhatuan was a dragon.

When the Hollow elves from the city came to discover what had happened, Nhatuan revealed himself as more than a dragon.

With fire and knives, Nhatuan showed the Hollow elf army that he was also a Wizard.

- - - -

In the brief moments between moments, Erick knew he was not Nothanganathor, and he was not Nhatuan either.

But a part of him was.

Or maybe a part of him had been.

Erick swam in memories older and deeper than either of them. It was like being Ashes Woodfield again, at the Glittering Depths of Greendale, in Greensoil. It was like seeing a great many things, buried, and yet freshly unearthed.

They were all fragments of The Prince.

They were all pieces of Xoat.

That was how Erick was doing this.

He was living memories that werent exactly his, and yet, they were.

- - - -

Nhatuan changed his name and found the Painted Cosmology full of people who did not appreciate him, so he moved on to other universes, exploring the cosmos.

- - - -

Erick was Nothanganathor, and also not.

The dragon was a man right now, looking at himself in a mirror, smiling wide. Erick was in that mirror. Nothanganathor only saw himself, though. He looked happier than ever before. Happier than most men. He wore an ornate black robe over white garments, while his room was the room of a city lord; ornate, but not too ornate. Everything was simply nice.

It was centuries since the last time Erick had seen Nothanganathor.

With casual twists of power, Nothanganathor gestured at the mirror, asking himself, Do I have a fae coming to my wedding today? Or just spying on me from the mirrors?

Erick found himself stepping out of the mirror, asking, Im unsure.

Before that moment, the visions had been unalterable. He had been along for the ride.

Maybe they were still unalterable.

Erick had stepped out of the mirror and voiced words, but he had been riding a groove in history, and not actually making any decisions for himself. He was here, and yet not.

Erick tried to tell Nothanganathor off, to eradicate him with fire and hate.

Nothing happened.

They had survived.

They still wouldnt understand any of what had happened until they got back to Margleknot.

Margleknot knew what had happened, apologizing to both of them for putting them in danger like that. He had not thought that would happen. Usually Shadow didnt kill anyone else but him, but it had been a few thousand years since he had tried visiting the Painted Cosmology, and she must have been wearing a violent sort of persona that day. Margleknot asked for forgiveness, and Nothanganathor was shaken, but he was happy to grant that requested forgiveness.

Nothanganathor wanted another vacation to the Painted Cosmology many years later.

Again, Margleknot provided the way forward, but with the same caveat.

Nothanganathor and Ara got a repeat of the same event, with another version of Margleknot that took the shape of a young woman, and who was Aras cousin. This time no others were involved in that young womans death. Nothanganathor had tried to stay distant, but there was still an emotional pain that didnt quite heal.

The same event would repeat every vacation he tried to take to the Painted Cosmology. The only consolation for the emotional damage suffered was that Margleknot didnt seem to mind the deaths.

Margleknot had expected those deaths. He kept going into the Painted Cosmology anyway.

Nothanganathor expected the deaths, too, but he loved those vacations. It was like a reward for all his hard work to live a simple life for a little while. And yet...

And yet, Nothanganathor grew to hate Shadow and her ilk, but it was like hating the sky. He didnt attach too much emotion to all of that hate.

Not yet.

- - - -

Nothanganathor and Ara stood as the sole survivors on a world burned down to the stone.

In this life, Margleknot had tried his hand at being an archmage and he had gained that power, thanks to his uncle Nothanganathor.

And then the Shades had come.

Nothanganathor had killed a Shade that had killed Margleknots avatar and all the rest of their little city in the rocks of the mana ocean, and that had been the wrong move. He should not have killed a Shade. He had been too angry to think right. He had been too angry And now, he had killed a Shade.

There would be reprisal, and running would be a bad idea.

Nothanganathor waited for the Darkness to descend. For Mother to appear.

He did not wait long.

Ikaramaliana was not his visitor, this day. Not his mother. No.

Melemizargo descended. Melemizargo, the Second.

Melemizargo, the black bastard that Nothanganathor hadnt seen in an age.

Melemizargo saw Nothanganathor.

Memories registered.

Melemizargo jerked, and then he attacked.

He ripped Nothanganathor to pieces, laughing all the while, but he left Nothanganathor alive to hear his laughter, and his booming words,

Welcome back, brother! Enjoy your stay! I know I will!

- - - -

Nothanganathor left the Painted cosmology but he came back, time and time again.

Sometimes a local god killed Margleknots avatar along with a thousand other people. Sometimes Shadow came herself. Sometimes Melemizargo himself did the deed and he took his time in that killing, being sure to inflict as much pain upon Nothanganathor as possible.

Once, Margleknots avatar lasted 30 years. Most of the time Margleknot died within a year.

Nothanganathor was too furious to ever consider not vacationing in the Painted Cosmology.

This was beyond personal. This was familial.

This was spiteful.

- - - -

I want to remove their threat, Nothanganathor told his wife, Ara, inside a space that no one could overhear. I need them both gone. All of them; Mother, too. For all time. All their Shades. Everything to do with them. Its not just protecting Margleknot. It is so much more than that. It is the right thing to do.

Ara opened her mouth and for the first time this vision, she had a voice. Her voice rang of Truth, Righteousness has no power in this, Nhatuan. You want it for yourself and that is the entire Truth, my greedy dragon.

Nothanganathor softly asked, So what if I do?

Ara smiled. Her next words were lost to Obscurity, but she did look directly at Erick, her brushstroke eyes shining green.

Nothanganathor cast a magic and projected it outside of himself, saying, Fae arent allowed to watch every part of my life.

Nothing happened.

Nothanganathor looked at Erick.

Ara said something.

Ah, Nothanganathor said, Yes. I suppose I should blind the Darkness.

Nothanganathor cast another spell

Darkness spilled away from Nothanganathor. Far, far away, and Erick floated with it.

Erick watched from far outside of Nothanganathors body as Ara and Nothanganathor had a distant, contained conversation. Space was fuzzy, and so were the walls, but Erick knew enough to understand what was happening here.

Nothanganathor and Ara were brewing up the plan for Goddeath Poison Plan. The actual brewing would come later.

The Darkness raged alongside Erick, knowing what he was looking at, but both of them could do nothing. The past was the past, and both of them were merely observers right now. To what end? Erick could not tell.

He would find out, eventually.

- - - -

Erick knew how the Goddeath plan ended.

The Goddess of Magic died and then held a tournament 50 years after her death to decide the next God of Magic. Melemizargo and Nothanganathor fought in that Tournament of Gods, both of them easily surpassing all other applicants.

The view flowed through tens of viewpoints of that tournament, but Erick did not care to see it all too clearly. He focused on the day before the last battle.

Erick wasnt sure what he was looking for as he sought the end of that fight, and the causes of all the Sundering to come Ah.

That was it.

He was looking for causes of the Sundering.

He was making judgments.

- - - -

Erick lay on the ground, his white serpentine body squirming underneath Melemizargos claws. He was 99% dead.

He was 100% furious.

Melemizargo had taken Ara and Sundered her last night, before the final tournament round. Nothanganathor had not fought his best because of that. The rage had clouded his eyes. The rage still clouded his eyes.

Nothangnathor and Erick yelled, Finish me, you tormentor tyrant! If you dont I will hunt you down for all eternity and bring down everything you are, as you have done to my Ara!

It was a taunt, for if Nothanganathor could not be God, then he would rather die than live his life.

In that moment, Melemizargo changed his mind about killing Nothanganathor.

Melemizargo declared, Oblivion is too kind for you.

Melemizargo breathed in Ascension, the very universe itself dipping its tendrils into him, wrapping him with power, Mantling him in might, with the history of every other God of Magic to come before him. Ikaramalianas ghost vanished into her son.

Melemizargo pushed a claw into Nothanganathor, and twisted, saying, Mine.

Erick came out of Nothanganathors chest, held in Melemizargos grip. He was a mote of Darkness and himself, all at the same time, and yet he was neither of those things.

Below him lay Nothanganathors still-living body. The serpent was ashen white and red all over, gasping for breath and finding none. He had expected death. He had gotten something far worse. He was too surprised to know the full extent of what Melemizargo had just done. He was in too much pain. He understood nothing.

And then he knew what had happened.

Unbelieving, pain pushed to the side, Nothanganathor whispered, You took my Darkness?

Erick tried to tell Melemizargo not to do it, for he was planting the seeds of his own destruction. It was not too late. He could put the Dark back into Nothanganathor and then simply kill the man. But not this. Not this desecration of the Dark. Anything but this.

The Darkness roared with Erick, telling Melemizargo what Erick could not.

No one heard either of them.

Melemizargo laughed in evil delight as he held Nothanganathors Dark Mark aloft, announcing, I Curse you, Nothanganathor. Your scales soften. Your history changes. You are a creature of simple water and nevermore of the True Ocean. Your claws do not exist and all you are is a fish flailing around those much bigger creatures than you. Your only safety is in Obscurity, and that shall be your Curse. Your only blessing is the blessing of Nothing. Become one with nothing, Nothanganathor! I Curse you! I Curse you! I Curse you!

Elves in the stadium all around, stood up, and sang in unison, Cursed to smallness! Cursed to Obscurity! For what you did to Ikaramaliana, you are Cursed forevermore! We Curse you! We Curse you! We Curse you!

Melemizargo broke Nothanganathors Dark Mark and Erick was cast adrift on the shards of that Mark as Nothanganathor twisted under Obscurity, the Darkness forever denied to him.

- - - -

Erick did not see Nothanganathor regain power in Margleknot, rebuilding himself and turning his empire over to Morbion Blackthorn, for his empire to become the Wraithborne Tower. He did not see Nothanganathor regaining strength and fighting corruption. He did not need to. He knew what had happened anyway.

Nothanganathor had tried to reclaim his Darkness many times, and in many different ways.

The next time he saw Nothanganathor it was from the perspective of an old woman in a tower overseeing a great city.

He only saw a flash of a white maw, rimmed in Red outside of the wizards windows, but it was enough to know the white maw belonged to Nothanganathor. It was enough to recognize Malevolence. The white serpent had tried to steal a Mark of the Dark.

It must not have worked because Erick witnessed, from 6 more perspectives, as Nothanganathor ate him 6 more times. Erick had briefly been a Wizard in a swamp, overseeing mushrooms. A Wizard in a tower, 3 more times, each of the towers looking mostly the same but in vastly different cities and lands. A Wizard in the ocean. A Wizard on a ship in the mana ocean, in the middle of nowhere.

And then Nothanganathor came for the Darkness once more. This time he came with True Power.

Nothanganathor stole the Dark Mark out of a Light Wizard with the Sign of Power that he had stolen from Margleknots avatar.