Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia and Henry walked up to the throne.

Both ready to fight at any moment, Henry poked the corpse on the throne with his scimitar.

“Hmm. Ya know I really expected the fucker to wake up and fight back but I suppose not.”

“It’s like the body I got the heart from. I couldn’t feel that one’s bones with my powers either.”

“This one got a heart too,” Henry noted, “mind if I do?”

“Take it but I’m entitled to half.”

“Tssk. Ya woulda fit right into our crew, really,” Henry commented, plunging his hand into the corpse’s chest. He pulled a crystal similar to the one Sofia had out of the hand king’s body, and began to step down from the dais.

“Not going to take the crown?” Sofia asked, “I know I can’t take it out but can’t we resell it?”

“Don’t bother, who wants this ugly stone thing covered in fingers? Tis’ pointless clutter.”

“Hmm… Well that’s all a bit disappointing if this is really the end of the ruin.”

Henry shook his skull, “It should be the end, but don’t be disappointed so fast. We ain’t out, so there is aught yet to be found.”

After some quick surveying of the place, Henry found a secret tunnel under the throne, and they all proceeded to walk down into it, leaving the throne room behind. Sofia expected another layer transition deeper into the dream, but nothing of the sort happened, and they all just walked deeper and deeper into the down-sloped tunnel, having some casual chats.

Stopping to observe the empty lightstone holders in the tunnel wall, Sofia had a question. “Don’t you find it interesting how the epochs change but everything is still the same?”

“Do ya wear garments of hands on the regular?”

“Come on, that is not what I meant… The lightstone holders, throne rooms, crowns, kings… Chasing immortality and power… Ending in ruin… The people of this time were different, but by how much, really?”

Henry shrugged and adjusted his hat as he kept walking. “Didn’t take ya for the philosophical kind. It just be what people do, this especially, king, leader, captain, lord, whatever ya wanna call em. Authority figures rise because people seek them, everyone is lost, everyone is scared, in many cases it’s reassuring to just let someone else wield the sword.”

“I guess so…”

I suppose my city is proof of that… And I used to think not many people would willingly come to a place ruled by a necromancer…

“Say…” Sofia continued, having ticked at the word lord being used, “do you know about the ‘ten human lords’?”

Henry stopped and looked back at Sofia over his shoulder. “Have their legends survived all the way to yar time? That… warms my heart, somehow. But of course I know about them. Nobody in my time did not. They were extraordinary figures, all of them…” Henry sighed longingly at the memories. He turned around to face Sofia in the dim tunnel. “Since ya asked, let me introduce myself anew.”

A hand on his chest and the other holding his hat, he bowed to Sofia, “Henry Orimoz the third, of the holy empire of Lareshtra. Privateer at the behest of his Holiness the Pope, Lord Yvraveteth, the Orator.”

“The pope… Wait… Wait… I thought the admiral was…”

Henry straightened back up, “The admiral would be the Grand Inquisitor’s right hand man, or inheritor, however ya want to call it. The Grand Inquisitor and our Pope were close collaborators, after all. Though we were blind to the reason why until it was too late.”

“And what was it? The reason?”

“Quite a many questions ya have? Let’s walk.”

“Hmm.”

“So… The reason… Perhaps ye will think these the ravings of a madman, but we have reason to think… They were gods, the lords. The true rulers of the realms. Not all of them, but some. Living amongst us. Preparing us against– Alas, we failed to live up to their expectations…” Henry confessed, deep regret weighing on his words. “This blood sea realm. Tis’ a testimony of our failings.”

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“You weren’t wrong,” Sofia answered after a short silence, “The Inquisitor. The Orator. The Regulator. The Annihilator. The true lords…”

“I see. That was not far from our guesses. They were among those who mysteriously perished or disappeared, right before the end… Did they return… To live among us once more?”

“No.”

Henry was silent for a long while, only the sounds of footsteps echoing through the tunnel.

“That saddens me greatly”, he finally said, “Yet you have become the Grand Inquisitor’s Inheritor, have you not?”

“That I did. I have met the four of them, in fact, but their involvement with us mortals has been… Very limited,” Sofia admitted.

“We always knew his Holiness was too good a man to be of our ilk. Things may not have turned out for the best but… I am glad that he lives on, nevertheless.”

Sofia chuckled.

“Tssk. A man opens his heart and the vixen laughs, times have truly not changed, have they!” Henry chided lightheartedly to hide his embarrassment.

“Ahah… Sorry, sorry. That’s not it! I was laughing because… He is most certainly listening-in right now.”

Henry stopped for an instant before stepping forward again. “Then perhaps my prayers were not in vain after all…”

Sofia saw that the man was shaking. She said nothing.

“Can you tell me more about the others?” She asked after a while, as the tunnel just kept going on and on. “All the ‘human’ lords.”

It was Henry’s turn to laugh, “Keh heh heh, human lords my ass! Four gods, two dragons in disguise, and one corruptor and dragon halfblood, how many humans were there, really?!”

“At least three?”

“Three out ten, quite the score, ya agree? Well… All ten were definitely more human than most, either way. Are ya sure ya want this old bard to ramble on about pointless old history?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“Well, perhaps I shall give ya the long of it once we are back at sea. For now, a short one will have to do, I do not feel like playing a thune, at the moment.”

Sofia nodded, “That is perfectly fine.”

“Then… The history of the ten lords as told in the story books… It begins in the early days of our era. In the old days, long before I was of this world, Magic ran rampant, and civilization was naught to be found. Monsters roamed the land, wild and free, and the world was engulfed in ceaseless carnage. Eris and Oris, the fiends of light and darkness, were shaking the world in the endless conflict. Then, a savior arrived. The legend wants that with a mere gaze, the fiends were subdued, and the strongest monsters reduced to ashes. That was Edrazeketh, the first human lord. Also known as… The Annihilator."

Sofia instinctively shivered at the name being pronounced so brazenly, but there was no consequence. Perhaps even the Lords are not able to listen-in here after all…

“Did he have seven arms?” Sofia asked curiously.

“Of course not? Are ya well in the head? Would we have called him the first human lord if so?! Though I suppose he was later represented like that in some artworks…”

“What did he go on to do?”

“He ruled over a large empire for millennia to come, with a great many ageless fiends as his permanent retinue. Though it was on the other side of the world from the holy empire, their technological prowess scattered far and wide, making life easier for all… It was a place of science, first and foremost… But enough of yar questions! I will run out of material for our travels at sea, at this rate! The second ‘human’ lord, Amurketh the Curator, rose to prominence some two thousand years later. He was, in truth, a dragon, inspired by the first lord, he gave himself a similar name, as for his title and recognition, they came from his obsession with recording history and knowledge. In his time, he built a great archive, said to house all the knowledge of our era and to contain more than a million books.”

“In his time?”

“Yes, the truth is, by the twentieth millenia, he had disappeared, and so did the archive. Only a giant hole was left where the grand edifice used to stand. All information beyond that is mere speculation on what might have happened; Amurketh was never seen again.”

Sofia took mental notes. If this archive still existed somewhere, it might be worth the effort of finding it. Perhaps divination magic could find a trace…

Meanwhile, Henry continued his nostalgia-fuelled storytelling. “The third lord to become renowned enough for the title, Zerteth the Blade, hum… Well, ya see, he was a mercenary, and a fighting genius for the ages. He left many stories of legendary battles and was said to have reached the absolute pinnacle of swordsmanship, holding off five angry dragons with a single blade… And that's about it. He died young, barely a few hundred years old. And thus the legends stopped.”

“He fought five dragons together by himself? Is that how he died?”

“Oh no, he supposedly won that battle. He was foolish, and went on to tackle the beast in the sea. That was his last mistake.”

“The beast in the sea, you say…” Sofia repeated, a disturbing image appearing in the back of her mind.

“That is so. A beast so terrifying, even his holiness the Pope would steer his ship around its waters. If there is to be one highlight in the thing that we may not mention, then it is that this beast has to have finally met its end. May its souls rest under the warm waters.”

So this Zerteth tried to kill the Leviathan all by himself… Foolish indeed…

Not wanting to sour Henry’s mood, Sofia omitted to mention that the Leviathan was still alive and well, though these were probably not the best words to describe it, and just pushed the conversation forward. “What about the fourth lord to show up?”

Henry visibly perked up. “That would be his Holiness, the Orator,” he answered, a smile in his voice.

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