“Have you ever regretted what you've done? What you made of your citizens?”
“This is not my sin, Dreamer. This is their choice. In all lives, we face tribulation, each a trial of our own. What makes of us, what becomes of us, that is born of our choice. You are a creature that desires choice above all, don’t you?”
“Yes. But they were shaped by yours. Your seeds. In them. In their failure. Their atrocities.”
“They are not my failing, Dreamer. They are my thesis. For all their virtues, they succumb to their flaws. And that is why they cannot be the deliverers of my paradise. Neither can I. Even I. Too flawed. Too weak.”
[Burning Dreamer Laughing] “Your problem is not weakness. Not even flawed if judged from capability.”
“Then where do my failings lie?”
“Delusion and inflexibility. Refuse to see humans for what they are?”
“What are they?”
“Choked. Damned. Existence does not care for them. Mistakes ruin them. Death ends them. Entire worlds of experience and knowledge lost with each person. And the new ones fail to learn. Suffer the same. It is not a cycle. None of this is academic theory. It is the same story. And it repeats.”
“Because finality?”
“Because ontology. Hence worship. Humanity dreamed of gods to do what they could not. But how can a limited thing know the absolute? Not as they are. You think of the world as concepts. A tyrant playing at academia. Fitting. History is but a tale to you. Yet... Humanity is not an argument. It isn’t anything beyond biology and dynamics created by circumstances. Meaning came thereafter. Chains from chains.”
“You provoke me with my father’s words.”
“I will provoke you further with a stated truth: You are afraid of divinity. You still lust for humanity. Cling to the structure of your ego. And so you inflict this existential blessing on your father. And think of him now... ask his node what he thinks of this world of yours. Of Uthred. Will he even want it? And what more does he know of the divine? What does the Sleeper?”
“It matters not what we want in the end, only what must be done.”
“It only matters what we want. Nothing must be done. Nothing needs to be. But we are. So we can choose. And here... and so many times... you didn’t.”
-Intercepted Conversation of Two Unknown Entities within the Substance (Assumed to be the Burning Dream and Veylis Avandaer) Obtained by Inner Council
31-9
False Deliverance (I)
“Has this satisfied you?”
A voice—a comingling of Avo and Veylis—resonated from within Uthred and the former Authority froze.
“No,” Uthred breathed, clenching his teeth. “No, no, I...”
“Did you think a single apology would mend what you perceive to be broken?” the voice asked. “Or is Abrel’s absence what troubles you? Did you wish to speak with one of your children instead of the broken product that is to be your House’s legacy?”
Something almost a whimper escaped from Uthred, but he still managed to give a reply. “I... I want to fix this. I want to make this all right. I need to make this all right. Another chance... One more try...” Ṝ
“To be a better father to Jhred?”
“Yes!”
“To be there for Abrel when she needed you?”
“Yes!”
“To make sure Vator was never broken, or Vator never was?”
Uthred paused.He pulled his hands away from his face and looked at his only remaining son with glistening eyes. “I just want to know how to be your father. I never understood. I wasn’t good enough. I’m sorry.”
“Amusing to you, perhaps. But they would have failed in the end as well. For we exist alone unto ourselves. And it is the individual that suffers, not the collective. The individual that decides in tandem with others, not an organization. So long as there is a difference in people, then power cannot be shared, for power will be torn by drifting interests and mutating desires. Their paradise will last for an eon but no more. Eventually, the fragmentation of their democracy eternal will turn on itself, for there is only one condition where all are satisfied equally.”
“Let me guess? Death?”
“Enslavement,” the voice replied. “The majority sculpted by the minority—such is the laughable nature of the Inner Council. Until even the minority turn upon each other, and in the end, only one. One unworthy vessel trying to command a vessel they have long since lobotomized. And thus, paradise turns to purgatory—an unending eternity of stagnation and decay to follow, as the final engineer of unity enjoys their solitary reign—until they are offended by the tapestry itself, and decide the patterns to, must all be aligned. And that, Guard-Captain, will result in your so-called death. Or something close to it.”
“Right,” Draus grunted. “So. The solution is to have one perfect ruler run everything.”
“One above the failings of humanity and the minds. One perfectly bond to existence awakened. Will you have things another way?”
Draus barred her teeth. “Donno. An immortal life of change and war and whatever other fuckin’ madness that follows with freedom unchained don’t sound like hell to me.”
“And what will come of this eternal anarchy absent order—but not consequence.” The voice let out a choked note, and its timbre shifted low and sibilant, going from a mix to predominantly Avo. “Chains cannot teach. Everything changes. Order will shatter. Paradise is a lie. You cling too hard Veylis... but hierarchy is not salvation. And not even salvation is divine. It is time to stop yearning for a savior. It is time to stop fleeing from ruin certain to come. Face it. Be destroyed. But never killed. And return. Always return. Always experience... for what is broken can be reforged. The flame reveals.”
And at once, the cascading waves of Soulfire leaving Uthred jolted and folded into each other. A clash of metaphysical pressure exploded outward, and the Acting Authority came ablaze with power.
“Enough!” Veylis’ voice echoed through now, and all hints of Avo vanished.
Almost all.
Hiding... Chambers from her... couldn’t shroud you too... Ignorance groaned. Draus felt something on the verge of breaking inside her—the Definement pressed to the absolute limit, overtaxed.
+Shit. Let go, consang! Let go!+
Not... yet... need an opening... to stop... counter...
+Counter what?+
But then Veylis spoke again, and Draus found her attention drawn by a second presence joining Uthred. A pulsation of space and time emanated out from his body—Draus waited no time, she unleashed a hellstorm of firepower—missiles and bullets curving around Mondelles, streaking to cut Uthred down.
They got a meter within his body before an intercepting salvo of projectiles intercepted hers. The counter-fire exploded out from Uthred’s miracles of Continuum as if they were always there—fired long ago and held in reserve. Draus recognized the second presence within him then.
The fire radiating from Uthred spread, and a patch of existence around the Authority turned transparent—became a portal to another place, another time. There, body enshadowed by a backdrop of nuclear fire and rupturing reality, soared a familiar figure coming right for Draus and the others. A familiar figure with a gnarled cannon in place of a head.
JELENE DRAUS OF THE STILLBORN, DELIVERER OF FINALITY (WAR/GUNS/REFLECTION/LUMINOSITY...) [EST. 10000000]
And scowled. “Fuckin’... can’t get rid of you.”
“Hard to run from oneself, Guard-Captain. Take this as a compliment: You are the highest following threat in the Dreamer’s absence, and so, I must see you taken from the board. Even if it costs me another loyal servant. Authority Uthred. Your task stands before you: Perform, and earn your utopia.
Uthred’s expression hardened. “Your will be done, Highest Avandaer.” He extended a hand as the Deliverer came sailing behind him, and a greatsword of Continuum-severing flame ignited, leaving a cleft in reality as it formed.
AUTHORITY UTHRED GREATLING, THE SOULSCARRED (CONTINUUM/FIRE/SPACE/WAR/FORCE/SPEED) [EST. 155555555]
“I take no pleasure in this, Vator,” Uthred said, as the paracausal fires crawled over his body, merging into pieces of armor. The softness of his stare hardened into a glare as he regarded the of the room. “But I will relish—”
A chain of magenta materialized around his waist and bound him to Vator. Uthred’s eyes widened. The flames wrapping around him staggered to a halt. “What?”
“What?” Veylis repeated, surprised.
Vator tilted his head inquisitively.
Ignorance gave a weak laugh.
Commanding the power of love itself, Aedon Chambers’ Lovebringer exploded into the room, weaving itself together from the Bond between father and son; launching new threads through the portal, at the Deliverer itself.
And with a resonant declaration, the former enforcer turned the opening of the coming battle on its head. “Hey! Uthred! Fucking nut yourself!”