Chapter 421: The List And The Nine

I sat down and watched the Stoneborn. He placed a hand on the tablet and put his other hand into the flame in the forge, and as he closed his eyes I felt a wave of power ripple from the flame through his body and into the tablet, and he began to mutter in words that I could not understand.

"Oh...oh, this is astonishing," Dorrik called out in surprise, startling me. "There is someone else in the distant past that had your crazy ambition. This should reduce the time I need for the forging, if I have everything for this process."

I saw lines of power flow through his fingers, tracing the surface of the stone. "This is the list of materials that would be needed to build a shell capable of containing multiple Laws. I had ideas about the creation of this shell, but I was not the only one, which is so strange... I had never thought about doing something like this so I never asked these questions I am asking the flame."

I looked at the tablet in his hand. "There was someone else who wanted to build something like this?"

"Aye. A god. A powerful one. He wanted to bind the Laws of the old world into a single vessel, a weapon that could reshape reality itself. His intent was buried deep in the flame, but he could never complete the work, because in the end, even he thought it was a crazy idea."

I looked at the tablet, as I frowned. "And you think I can succeed where this god failed?"

Dorrik shrugged, "I don’t see why not. I am just creating a shell, not seizing Laws and imbuing them into it... that challenge would be for you, as for me, I have something else to focus on."

I nodded slowly. "Then tell me what is on this list."

Dorrik began to read. The list was long, and the names of the materials were strange and unfamiliar.

"The Heart of a Star," Dorrik read. "The Tear of a Harpy. The Eye of a Seer who saw the end of all things. The Blood of a Dragon who was never born. The Voice of a God who was never heard. The rest are easier to acquire, and I can call to the wind to bring them to me in their spare time... so, do you see the magnitude of what you want?"

I listened, and the words he was saying grew more ridiculous. As a mage, I was expecting something much more practical, like a rare ore, or an elementalised root, not such vague items, but again, I had just ventured into the realm of Laws, so there were many things I did not understand about this tier of power.

This list I suspect was meant to be impossible for anyone to succeed at it, but I had a problem that was impossible to solve. The Pale Matron, the Sovereigns, this entire mess that I found myself in was freaking impossible, and I did not know how long I could slave away at this mountain, slowly chipping at it before something finally breaks inside me.

The only solution was always the impossible one... I had to become someone that could break the game. I may not be the strongest, but I wanted to be the one that could be the final solution.

"Where do I find these things?" I asked.

Dorrik looked at me, and I saw something shift in his ancient grey eyes. "The Heart of a Star is buried in the depths of the Silent Sea, it fell millions of years ago, and at night you can still see its glow in the depths of that horrifying sea. The Tear of a Harpy is held by the Deep Folk, in their subterranean cities, and they will not give it up willingly. The location of the Eye of that Seer is not something that is known to me, but I will keep searching. The Blood of a Dragon will only be found in Aelmar, the birthplace of dragons, and finally, the Voice of a God is... well, that is the hardest one. It cannot be found. It must be earned."

The Stoneborn shook his head, "This is not a journey that can be completed in a single lifetime. You surely have your work cut out for you."

I stared at him for a moment before I reached out and put my palms flat on the stone.

"BRAAAAHNNNN..."

∞

My hands came off that tablet and I turned around as what sounded like a horn was being blown outside the mountain. The sound held for longer than any mortal lung should manage, before it stopped.

Dorrik stared across the hall, and sighed, "And so it begins."

I followed his gaze and saw nine hazy figures in the distance, wearing black cloaks, riding something that was covered by those billowing cloaks.

"The creation of a weapon in my forge has not gone unnoticed. Let me go see our guests."

Dorrik walked out of the hall, and I followed him, tucking the tablet into my robes, and wondering if finally the war had reached me.

As we stepped outside the mountain, I saw that these nine figures had dismounted, their black cloaks had folded themselves to their backs, and they were on one knee, about four hundred paces away.

The animals they had been riding, the ones hidden under those mysterious black cloaks, were revealed to be very tired horses, and two of them had even collapsed on the ground behind the group, and I could not immediately tell if they were unconscious or dead.

One of the animals did not look like a horse, but it was surrounded by a haze of heat that made my eyes slide off its shape.

As much as I was a bit annoyed that these nine figures were kneeling in front of the mountain instead of tending their horses, what really drew my eyes were the figures themselves, and I could not stop myself from staring in astonishment.

∞

The first shape that naturally drew my eyes was the biggest among them. Nine feet at least, with grey skin, and heavy with muscles. He was kneeling with one arm while the other was tied off above the elbow with a piece of cloth. I think I was looking at a Troll, he fit all the descriptions of what I read, but according to that tablet, trolls were supposed to have very high regenerative capacity, even growing back lost limbs.

So, either this wound he suffered was very fresh, or there must be something stopping this troll from healing.

Beside him were three small pale figures, they were curiously kneeling six feet apart from the rest of the group, and I saw that the light of the morning sun was not touching them in the right manner, as if light itself was arriving a moment late. Ah... these must be Shades.

Then beside these three shades was a long dark shape that I took for a woman in a coat, and the longer I looked at her the less I believed there was anybody inside the coat.

Beside her was a short and unbelievably broad figure, Dwarf maybe, or another Stoneborn like Dorrik.

And two of them were human.

A young man, and a girl, and I found myself staring at the first humans I had seen in the past.

Numerous and unremarkable... that is what the tablet had said about my people.