Storm and Stone Ch. 03

"But it was necessary!" she argued.

"That was a lie then, and nothing has changed! You conquered an entire continent without a fight, and experimented on it's people without their consent... without even their knowledge!"

"We sought understanding!"

"You sought loyal slaves! The dwarves were once giants...of Earth!"

"Please...," she begged.

Arawn backed up and held out his right hand, palm up. He focused all his fury and outrage into that hand and it was instantly shrouded from the wrist up in shadowy black flame.

"I may need your knowledge, but you are unnecessary. It's time to redefine that term I talked about. Your consciousness can join it's kin in oblivion."

*********

Arawn surged awake with a lunge and a furious shout. He moved so fast that he never had the chance to register that he had been in bed and the momentum carried him onto the floor face down. Naturally, this frightened the bejesus out of the staff who had watched over him for the five weeks since the incident in the park. The shrieks of surprise drew the attention of guards, who then raced off to notify the appropriate people that the bizarre human had finally awakened. They quickly offered a cloth for his nose and helped him to his feet, then explained his surroundings.

He stood by the window about a half hour later and let the noon sun warm his body while he wiped away the last traces of his bloody nose when a crowd of people burst into his room. Arawn turned to find that the host comprised of all those he had gotten to know back at the camp; he saw Captain Grokan and Captain Dakkrig, Nudjik, Bronnigut, Lorup, and of course Amevina, her brother Vorsah, and his wife Ke'line. Even Kem'erra and the Lady Cille'rinia had attended. He was glad to see them, but could only manage a strained smile under the weight of the knowledge that he had been given. They all paused just inside the door, hesitant to disturb him after what some of them had witnessed, and all had no doubt heard.

"Come on in, everyone. Have a seat. It's good to see you. I just found out I've been sleeping on the job for over a month. Trying to regain my bearings."

Amevina took a deep breath and steeled herself against the emotions that threatened to overtake her, and walked over to Rawn with grace and dignity. When her arms encircled his chest, she exhaled the breath she never realized had been held and Amevina found the peace that she had sorely missed these past weeks while he lay unconscious. It was a peace that she never knew she lacked until she met this strange human. The healers, even Kem'erra herself had told her that Arawn was only resting, but she just would not settle herself until he regained consciousness, could not settle herself. Now, however, she was content once more. "I'm so glad you're awake. How are you feeling and, what happened to your face?"

Arawn led her to the bed, where he sat and pulled her into his lap and against his chest while everyone settled into a seat.

"Well, as I woke up I decided to dive out of bed and land on my face. The healers have already patched that up, then I managed to smoke half a joint and settle my head before they made me put it out, and I was just cleaning up the last of the mess from my face when you all came in. Other than that, I'm mostly ok."

"Mostly?"

"Honey, that's a bit of a long story." he looked over to Amevina's mother and sighed, "You might want to call the rest of the council in for this one, I know how I got here. I also know who brought me, and why, and I know the truth that has been hidden from you all for three hundred millennia in my years. That's somewhere over a hundred million years in your time, if my math is right on the time differential. It is time to set things right."

"Can you manage holding this conversation in the council chambers? I apologize if it is an inconvenience, young Arawn, but there are eight additional people who will have to join us for what you are asking, plus my husband. It would be a much more comfortable setting for everyone involved. The others here may join as well."

Arawn nodded in the affirmative and smiled, "Won't be a problem. Physically, I'm fine. What messed me up was having the collective memories and life experiences of eight out of the nine Nithraksi crammed into my head all at once. Sorry, the Nithraksi are what the Elders called themselves. Anyway, sorting through over a billion-and-a-half years of memories is a bit of a bitch, but I'm good for the meeting. Might take me a moment to remember some of their shit though, so warn everyone to bear with me... please?"

"Of course." Lady Cille'rinia sent a guard out to call for the meeting and everyone relaxed while Arawn listened to their version of the events. He was quite shocked to hear of the fire serpent, they amazed him with their tale of the light show they were treated to during his incident in the park.

"So, what I'm hearing is that you got the fireworks of the century, and I missed it? That sucks."

Of course he had to explain what fireworks were, and they fell into easy conversation while they awaited the return of the guard. When Arawn noticed a primitive pistol that hung from Bronnigut's belt, he had to ask.

"Hey Bronnigut, how common is that flintlock piece at your waist?"

"Not very, but not quite uncommon either. Why lad, lookin' to get one of your own?"

"No, just wondering how widespread that particular plague is on your world. You're going to learn a hard lesson from that invention. You do not appreciate just how cheap life is until you can kill that easily without thought."

Bronnigut scoffed, "Bah, you're worryin' too much. These things are better served as a backup in a pinch. You'll get killed trying to use it in real combat."

Arawn gave the dwarf a rueful smile and shook his head, "That's why someone will think to improve it, make it better, in order to harness that power on the battlefield. Imagine a gun that could fire a hundred times in a single second..."

Now the dwarf laughed outright, "That's madness, lad. No one in their right mind would create a butcher's machine li..."

"My people have used a weapon just like that for over forty of our years. Come to think of it, might be closer to sixty years," Rawn interrupted.

Ten faces locked their horrified gazes on him.

"Impossible..." Dakkrig whispered.

"Very possible, my large friend. They called it the M134 Minigun and that thing will shred the shit out of anyone you shoot with it... and I mean anyone. Put one of those guns in the hands of someone with a good aim and they could cut Kord in half at the waist before he could even get to them. As I told Captain Grok and most of the others here on the day they got us out of the prison caravan, we have gigantic rockets on my world that we can launch from the other side of the planet without even setting foot on your soil. These rockets carry bombs that would take... one, maybe two at most, to level all of Lake Home and leave nothing but a dead husk behind... if that."

"I cannot believe that such a thing is possible, Arawn. I trust you, but your words feel like the those of a man sharing a myth or a legend," Dakkrig explained.

"It is true, cousin," Grok spoke up. The others who had been with him that day nodded in agreement. "I have seen what he calls video on the device he used to contact his friend on the other world when the two of them spoke the other day. That same friend has even tamed a succubus and made her his mate without the use of magic, Dakkrig,"

Arawn took the opportunity to correct him, "Actually, Ray didn't say tame, just bound. He said it was an accident that it happened at all."

You could have knocked the two orcs over with a feather. Grok, due to his extra day of exposure to the human, was the first to recover.

"What kind of power could a man possess that would let him bind such a creature by accident?"

"Apparently, the kind of power I do not know about yet. I didn't know the man had it in him! We were supposed to talk a few days after I came here to Lake Home."

"Should you contact him?" Amevina interrupted.

"I doubt I can. Did you think to plug my phone into the solar panel I showed you before we left the camp, and keep it in direct sun?"

"I did, though I do not understand how such a thing can capture the light of our sun. I could detect no magic at work in its general operation but there is something magical about it. Your phone is like a beacon," she told him, "highly saturated with magical energies. Perhaps this is what allows you to contact your home?"

"I can't think of any other reason my phone would be magical. It certainly wasn't that way on Earth. Be nice if we could figure out what kind of spell or enchantment was put on it, though. It might be the key to getting through to my world."

Amevina sighed, "I had hoped you might be able to think of something. I tried to identify it, but the magic obscured it's workings from my vision."

"Damn. Something else to figure out. You're going to have to call a conference of your allies. You have no idea what the Elders have done, Amevina. I mean, this is the kind of shit they write stories about on my world, and it all starts there. What's more, I know exactly what spell they cast to bring me here but I cannot begin to guess at why it chose me."

Before he could get himself started, the guards returned to take everyone to the council chambers.

*********

Arawn took one look at the assembled room and knew instantly that it would not be enough. It was a very nice room, furnished in the natural brown hues and shapes of the magically worked wood, a matte cream paint covered the walls, and green paisley patterns on the furniture cushions. There were several single chairs and multiple settees, all in the same green paisley theme. The outstanding Matrons had arrived before they did. General Talsinar was even present, though obviously unhappy about it. He needed the orcs here, though, so he turned to Grok.

"Buddy, I need you to think of the orc rulers please. We need them here."

Grok looked at the human like he had grown another head, "What? They're a council."

"Thank you, that's perfect. I'll explain in a moment."

Rawn turned and lifted his hands together as if in prayer, and aimed the point of his clasped hands at the middle of the room. Energy poured from his hands and filled the empty center of the chamber with a thick, white, mist. He parted his hands and the mist swirled violently into a tornado and dissipated. It left behind five very confused and very large, new orcs. Before anger could settle in, their summoner launched into an orcish salute introduced himself.

"Greetings and salutations, good leaders of the Orc Dominion. I am Arawn Stonebrook, and it was I who brought you here. I can only offer my deepest apologies for the lack of warning and consent, but I've already gathered the Matrons with their consent. The information I am about to share with you should make it quite clear that there was no time for a proper summons."

Grok couldn't help himself, "How did you read my mind without causing sensation in my head? Lady Amevina has used such spells before, to ensure accuracy of descriptions and I always felt the magic."

"Because I did not enter your mind in any way, form, or fashion, Captain Grokan," Arawn was careful to maintain protocol in front of Grok's father. "I read your emotions. My natural talents have been magnified to a degree I didn't even know existed. When I asked the question, your confusion carried the image of the council out to me. Confusion is an emotion, too, and you radiated it when when you struggled to understand why I would need you to think of them. It is a reaction that few people ever learn to master, even I haven't. Before the Nithraksi did this to me, I needed physical contact to do that and it was nowhere near as easy. I was extremely difficult to lie to before, I suspect it is nearly impossible now."

"And who are the Nithraksi," Grok's father, High Warsmith Togrash tag-Gurogg, asked as he took a seat, the new information having already calmed what would have been a righteous fury at being snatched out of a training session with the new elite unit he had formed to deal with the Vaszul threat. Now, curiosity reigned supreme as he awaited the stranger's answer. A stranger, he noted, who was dressed as a Warden of the Forest under the Storm Queen's insignia. An accepted suitor, perhaps, he wondered? He decided to ask his son later.

"You called them the Elders, they called themselves the Nithraksi. The spirits of the eight killed by the Uldakka The Betrayer... known to you as the Dark One, brought me here with a spell that dumped me on my head next to one of the Vaszul prison convoys. Your son, Captain Grokan, liberated me, along with Vorsah, Ke'line, and Amevina as well as some of your own men, and the remaining civilian captives.

"The spell also put the collective memories of of seven of them straight into my head, an act they sacrificed the last of the energy that kept them here, to do. One of them tried to set up residence in my head, so I just took her memories and kicked her out into the afterlife. Its damn rude to try that shit without someone's permission."

A female orc who wore a hooded robe that framed her features, recoiled in horror at Arawn's declaration.

"If what you say is true," the hooded female asked, "how did you extract her memories without obliterating her soul in the process?"

"Bah, that's an easy one. I've already explained how physical contact makes anyone readable to me, with or without the Nithraksi enhancements. The moment her soul came into my body, her memories, her thought patterns, her life experiences, they all became mine as well by way of the emotional connection that she established between our two souls. Sorry, I forget that I haven't had the chance to explain this to everyone in the room. On my world, I am called an Empath. That's what the Nithraksi enhanced, well, along with my physical strength and speed. It is also the secret to Nithraksi magic, they were extremely advanced empaths. Their runes are just symbols that they discovered that govern the transformation of empathic energies into the arcane forms that mages use to access magic."

Arawn let them have a moment to absorb that and looked to Amevina. She offered an encouraging smile and he continued.

"Now for the rough part. This is going to demolish everything you ever thought you knew about the Elders, and you'll be as angry at them as I am by the time I finish, if not more."

Arawn spun them a tale of birth, tenacity, intelligence, conceit, and finally... tragedy. The Nithraksi arose on Earth during last 35 million years of the dinosaurs. They ascended from small, herd-based, bipedal, herbivorous lizards which fed on ground vegetation and fallen leaf matter who developed a communal sense of mood. By the time their evolution had peaked, were transformed into brilliant, naturally empathic creatures that felt on a scale beyond measure. The changes brought on by their adaptation changed them physically as well. The Nithraski now grew tall, lean, and agile; possessed of a lithe but powerful form and claws that could bring a Tyrannosaurus down with only a few well-placed strikes. Their technological and magical achievements formed the legends of his people; Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, and countless others throughout history were all borne from that time or founded by the survivors of the tragedy that they brought upon themselves. They could even travel among the stars and visited countless worlds in the time of their great empire.

Shortly before the mammals began their ascent to dominance over the Earth, a discovery was made on a world that humankind had never before heard of until now. That world sat perfectly opposite Saturn and shared it's orbit. That world, was Terrock. It was a vibrant world that teemed with life despite being so far from the sun's warmth, thanks to the heat generated by its core. Strangely, a planet so large should have had a high gravity, but it was revealed to be identical to that of Earth. There they found Orcs, Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, and all manner of creatures that the humans of Earth now knew as fantasy.

It also harbored a dark secret. Life arose here long before the Earth saw its first creatures walk on land. It also knew great war and strife in that time as well. In ages past, a great battle was fought by all the sapient races of Terrock against a great evil called Dagrethon The Malicious. The native races sealed it in a tomb of their own making, it lies beyond the seas to the southeast of Athul.

When all among those present who had any experience at sea began to protest that there was no land beyond the continent of Athul, Arawn lifted his hands and a warm glow enveloped the heads of everyone present. They all felt a weight release from inside their minds and looked around at each other in wonder.

"What just happened?" Matron Melithia Bel'turas asked.

"I removed a geas placed upon everyone by an ongoing spell; it targets all new births on the continent. It prevented you from leaving Athul by confusing both navigator and compass for between three and twenty days, then turning you back home with the belief that there was nothing to find. Anyone with a strong enough will to press on and break free despite the geas was never allowed to return by the spell because it will wipe their mind of all memories of ever having been to Athul. It also creates a barrier around the continent that keeps everything beyond Athul out. And there is a lot out there. Anyway, I'll get to why they did that in a minute."

Arawn went on to detail how they arrived and sought out the natives of Athul and deceived them by feigning to take them under their wing to guide their society toward the future. Uldakka the Scholar, Ignisi the Wise, Linnika the Innocent, Targatsus the Vigilant, Mithrala the Mystic, Yalasso the Wanderer, Githutt the Healer, and Zett the Master of Ways; they were the group that would come to be known as the Nine Elders.

Back on Earth, a great cataclysm from the stars befell the Nithraksi, and their civilization was left shattered and their society crippled. The most powerful civilization to ever walk the Earth, began its decline. Desperate to leave a legacy, the survivors on Earth, and the colonists on Terrock made a unanimous decision; if they could not survive the coming ice age then they would create beings who could. They took select examples from the advanced primates and slowly elevated them though means of arcane genetic manipulation that they did not fully understand. They experimented with other animals as well, but all were unpredictable failures. The apes, however, consistently produced intelligent specimens that possessed a powerful enough sapience that it could dominate the primal instincts of the animal. The work progressed quickly after that, and within a single millennium, humanity was born.

On Terrock, things took a different tack. The Nine Elders took orcs and elves and altered them from their classic forms. Before they were the Children of the Dragon, they were the Aldurith, and their skin was a rich gray. The Nine transformed them into the black-skinned creatures they are today and kept them close to their sides. The once savage and barbaric, but fair, orcs were now much larger and more physically powerful. They were more intelligent and possessed of an unshakeable sense of honor and justice, and their loyalty to The Nine was just as absolute. Then came the Nephilim Wars on Earth and everything fell apart.