High Artificer, Ch 28: High Council

In the Silver Hall, Chamber of the High Council

Images of the massive golden Astral Titan filled the air above the High Council table. 

The eight High Councilors watched with mixed emotions, but they were too stunned to speak.

They had all been summoned here from their home worlds by the few of them who liked to stay on Council. The emergency message had dragged them out of bed, from personal pursuits, from rest, and from other work, but they had no intention of complaining.

Their attention was fixed on the figure of the Titan. 

Recordings from the dozens of events across the galaxy had been quickly gathered here for them to see. 

It wasn’t difficult for them to focus on several things at once, so the room was a storm of activity as they watched multiple recordings at once and correlated them with one another.

All the sound of the recordings was in the observers’ minds and for their ears alone, so although the chamber was filled to the brim with images, it was completely silent.

Images of the Titan appearing above Bright Sky were first, followed by the black and silver bolt that shot toward a distant planet and destroyed it. His speech to the Winged Furies rang in the councilors’ minds.

Then there were the following appearances across distant worlds, so many of them and so widespread that it was impossible for anyone but an Astral Titan to have covered the galaxy that quickly. 

Nineteen scenes of planets being destroyed hung in the air, overlaid on top of one another like a stack of cards. When they played in sequence, it looked like a single bolt of energy was piercing through them all, like a spear exploding through a line of raindrops.

To one side, there was a recording of a wave of silver flame spreading across half a solar system like wildfire, incinerating a horde of dark and scaled Void beasts. The intensity raging from that conflagration made the High Councilors turn pale. 

They could sense the depth of the law in it and how the material of the Void melted in its presence. 

When it passed, there was nothing left of the beast horde. Their hides and bones were gone, their mana eradicated, and even the faint traces of their auras had been absorbed. The flame consumed all of it, leaving the Void empty and serene except for a drifting silver mist that radiated primal energy, as if it was the beginning of all things.

They were drawn toward that mist like fireflies, leaning toward the recording as if they wanted to reach through and grab it. They could feel the power it held, like the potential for a new age, but none of them had any idea what it was.

In another area, every word the Titan had spoken was saved, linked together into a series. The council members studied it without pause, trying to discern his intent. 

Personal accounts from those the Titan had saved were stacked up in another area, each of them playing in a loop whenever one of the councilors examined it.

For a long while, there was silence.

But then one voice broke it.

“There is no denying he’s an Astral Titan,” Winter said softly, her words hanging in the air as they formed snowflakes that drifted across the chamber. 

In contrast to some of the others, she wasn’t bothered by the idea, so she was the first to speak, giving voice to the conclusion she had reached.

She was Lady Winter, called the Goddess of Winter and Spring, and the oldest member of the High Nine. Unlike the younger races, she had been on the council since the day it was formed, her position never changing.

She'd assigned some of her daughters to the duty over the years, the ones who were the leaders of the Winter Sylphs, but she still came herself from time to time to check on things. With the news of a Titan, it was impossible for her to stay away.

She looked like a beautiful young Ice Sylph. Her hair was spun silver and white as it tumbled down her back like waves of snow and her eyes were a bright and brilliant blue like a winter morning. 

She was the mother goddess of all the Winter Sylphs and Ice Sylphs, as well as many other elemental races. 

She was also the only living member to have known the Astral Titans. 

She watched the recordings with a slight smile, but one that held a sad nostalgia. There was a sparkle of ice at the corner of her eyes that promised a tear might fall.

She was a naturally born elemental and her lifespan was endless, one of the few who could say such a thing. She had condensed from the expansion and contraction of ice and life in the Void. 

Her powers were unique among the council and she often took up the role of a distant advisor.

In the early history of the galaxy, she was one of the first other races that the Titans found.

She still remembered that meeting. 

She’d been friends with many Titans before they left through the Nexus and even in the current era she counted them as such, always hoping that they would return. To see one now was like watching the first flower open in the spring, a return of life.

“I hope this is a new beginning,” she said as flowers made of winter ice bloomed in the air around her. Their crystalline forms glittered with life, a form of living ice that she created naturally. 

“I wonder...are they finally coming back?”

With each word and the hope she felt, more flowers sprang into existence around her, blooming in swirling green and rainbow vibrancy, each of them delicate and wondrous. 

Unlike the rest of the council, she was well aware that the Titan had obscured his features, but she didn’t mention it. 

She could also sense something familiar about him with the element of Ice, a trace of connection to her domain. 

It wasn’t clear enough to pinpoint with accuracy from the recording, but due to that and familiarity with the Titans, she was able to understand more details about him than the other council members.

She felt no need to share them.

But inside, she was smiling, because in seeing him she felt like the greatest wish of the Titans might have come true.

She could tell that he was young. There was a strong presence of Spring youth in his aura, along with that touch of Ice. Until now, there hadn’t been a young Titan in the galaxy for tens of millions of years. 

Did they succeed? The thought formed in her heart and disappeared, gone before she said it aloud.

She knew the Titans well. 

Of the council, she was the one most familiar with their history and their plans, but she had no desire to share her friends’ greatest hopes with the people around her. 

Their lack of children wasn’t a true secret, but it didn’t feel right to say it here, or to reveal to the others that this Titan was young. 

She wouldn’t say her thoughts aloud until she had a chance to speak with him. It might interfere with whatever he was doing.

She glanced at the recordings again, studying the destruction of the worlds and the impact his appearance had, and then she tapped her finger on her lips, considering what his goal might be.

It wasn’t in the Titans’ nature to idly destroy worlds, and he’d carefully targeted barren ones, so it seemed he was just making a point and demonstrating his power.

Even though he was young, she could tell that he was powerful, already one of the strongest Titans she’d seen. He might not be on Caerlon’s level yet, but he was getting close, at least in the upper twenty percent.

Given how young he seemed, that was incredible.

She was curious what game he was playing and what statement he was trying to make, but as an old friend of the Titans, she had no interest in outing him before he made his move. 

Instead, she would wait and see what he did.

So far, his actions seemed like a warning to the council and the galaxy, telling them that he was unhappy with their current path.

With that, she agreed. 

It was a message that was long overdue. It was past time for the council to change and for the children to remember their origin. 

She didn’t think much of the younger members here, which was another reason she didn’t speak with them often. They had grown up under the aegis of the Titans’ power, and perhaps that hadn’t helped them to mature.

She was aware of their constant plotting and jockeying for attention, since it drew her attention every few thousand years, but it wasn’t in her nature to do anything about it unless it affected her children, the sylphs. 

She extended her efforts only so far as to protect her people, and so far her power was great enough. 

In the same style, her children kept themselves apart from political games, while extending a hand of help to the other races as necessary.

Beyond that, she was content to let events play out as fate decreed.

To see a Titan again brought back a flood of memories.

Perhaps she didn’t comprehend the needs of the younger races. Their lifespans were short, barely reaching a million years for most of them even if they made it to the Sixth Evolution. 

The Cer’Aleth were the best of the bunch and had longer lives. As fellow elementals, they were the most similar to her, but they were still not eternal in the same way that she was. Their origins were weaker, based in flame and crystal instead of eternal ice. 

In her earliest memories, she’d wondered if it was the nature of flames to die out, but it was just a passing thought. Then she met the Titans and realized that there were true sources of endless flame in the galaxy. 

Each of them was the heart of a blazing star and their ages were even greater than hers, burning from the first dawn of the Void to the final day. 

Endless and eternal, and hot where she was cold. 

They had found her not long after she was formed and welcomed her to the galaxy, shielding her from the few threats that were capable of killing her.

They had been a constant fixture in her life for endless years, a number somewhere in the hundreds of millions or even billions of years…she had long ago stopped counting. 

The early years had been different, without the daily events of the younger races to make each turning of the world important. She had marked duration by the rise and fall of life rather than the minor rotation of worlds. 

To her, the history of the galaxy was a pattern of interwoven life and death, heat and cold.

She had wept when the Titans left. 

It had felt like the end of her youth, as if all that was great and vibrant in the galaxy was fading away, leaving her only with these younger beings who couldn’t understand the endless cycle of the stars.

For all of her power, she found it hard to relate to them. Their concerns were so very different from hers. 

She cared about the turning of the seasons and the great rivers of ice in the Void, of the darkness and cold that warmed under the force of suns and sprang forth with life.

That was why she loved the Titans. 

They were the race with the greatest potential for life that she had ever met. It felt like every turn of their hands created something new and wondrous.

Sometimes, she wished she had gone with the Titans through the Nexus, but it wasn’t her path. She was born from this galaxy and here she would stay, until the last snowflake faded into the dark.

She had helped the Titans to build the Nexus and to inspire life on Aster Fall. She had even helped to put it back together a couple of times, but since they’d left, she hadn’t involved herself much with the council. 

At that moment, the rest of the council began talking, which pulled her attention back to the room. 

“How can you be sure it’s a Titan?” Yaivon, the Winged Fury councilor, looked disdainful as his eyes narrowed. “That creature destroyed a world in my home system! We have to hunt it down!”

Winter only glanced at him, but her displeasure created a wave of frost that froze his wings to the stool he was sitting on. Yaivon bared his fangs at her as he shook them free. 

“I thought they were gone,” the Lifeweaver councilor mumbled. “Why would one appear now? Didn’t they leave for good?”

“Is this true?” The Morani councilor looked excited. “I have always wanted to ask the Titans about their creations. They left so much behind! Their arts were more advanced than anything else in the galaxy.”

He was from the race that most called Mountain Dwarves, and they were always interested in crafting. Of all the councilors, it was no surprise that he was one of the most eager.

“It is most likely a Titan,” the Archalis councilor said as he tapped a pen on the table. “First, we have to evaluate the authenticity of the recordings, and those have been confirmed by multiple sources. These events took place.

“There is no doubt that whether or not this being is truly a Titan, they have the power of one, and Lady Winter’s acknowledgement holds enough weight to adjust my hypothesis. I accept it as the current theory.”

“If he is a Titan, his strength will prove it.” The Dragon Spirit councilor smiled as he pounded his fist on the table. “Finally, someone worth fighting!”

He turned to the Archalis with a fierce grin.

“My people will test this theory! Where do you think he will appear next? We will teleport there to meet him!”

“Ignoring how terrible of an idea that is,” the Archalis replied with irritation, “what would it even prove? He is clearly stronger than any Dragon Spirit ever recorded. None of you have the ability to destroy so many worlds so quickly. 

“By going to meet him with a desire to fight, you would most likely offend him and he would kill quite a few of you. Your approach would aggravate him. A more nuanced welcoming committee needs to be sent, with perhaps one Dragon Spirit at most as a representative of your race, but only one who can keep their head. That rules you out.”

“We’ll need someone who can face him in battle and earn his respect,” the Dragon Spirit insisted. “Who else would go but me?”

“A welcoming party is one thing,” the Cer’Aleth said carefully, “but there are larger questions.  Why did he appear now? What does he want? And will he take up the position that the Titans used to hold?”

Everyone’s gaze turned automatically to the ninth seat in the chamber. It was the only one empty. It was also larger than any of the others. Its surface was covered with an ornate pattern of runes carved into the stone.

The enchantments on it were still powerful even after all these years, and some people believed  that meditating on the symbols allowed insight into the guiding principles of the Void. Some said that it could help with Evolutions or improving a bloodline.

Visitors to the council chamber often attempted to achieve enlightenment from it.

“That is the first seat of all,” Winter said with a smile. “If he wishes to take it, will you try to stop him? I will not. None of you can even sit on it. You often forget that it is there, but has the stone that makes it up forgotten?”

The High Seat, as some called it, had prevented anyone else from sitting on it since the Titans left. It was attuned to them, or perhaps to their energy signature.

“I thought the Titans were gone,” Yaivon said, angrily flapping his wings. “Why did one come back? Didn’t they abandon this galaxy and go in search of a better one?”

“Are you sure he’s come back?” the Morani said with a laugh. “Maybe he’s a new one. They came from somewhere, after all. Who says it can’t happen again?”

“The Titans sprang up from primal chaos and the essence of the Void!” the Archali snapped at him, his tone biting. “Like the Vos’Rekan, they are the Firstborn of the Void. Their energy exists in a different state than ours, as does the quality of their strength, which is why they are so powerful. 

“Our research says they are not compatible with the current energy of the galaxy, and thus no more Titans can be born. He cannot be a new one unless that has changed! Have you sensed a cataclysm recently?”

“That doesn’t change the fact that he’s there,” the Morani said stubbornly, ignoring the Archalis’ condescension. “Look right there. He’s blowing up your worlds left and right. If it looks like a Titan, and it walks like a Titan....”

“Then he must have returned,” the Archali said coldly. “Outsiders are capable of coming through the Nexus near Aster Fall, so he must have done the same. That makes him the first to have ever done it. Perhaps more will follow, in which case, we need to speed this discussion along and decide what to do.”

“Do?” the Cer’Aleth snorted at the question, making a sound like crackling flame. “We can do what all races have done throughout the Titans’ history. Submit to them. It will be easier on us. There is a reason they ruled the galaxy, and I for one am glad he is back. 

“We have no chance of winning if we try to fight him. I might not be old enough to have seen the Titans myself, but I have studied the records. Others might think they are legends, but my people have a complete history of our time with them. There is a reason we call them Primordial.”

“We have fought Vos’Rekan before, and they are also Primordial!” Yaivon shouted as he stood up, slamming his hands onto the table. “We can fight him too! I will not allow a random Titan to take over the galaxy that I rule. 

“Maybe they ruled it once in the past, but no more. This is our age! There’s only one of them. We will gather our forces and defeat him!”

“They must have a weakness,” Nurim agreed. The Wind Wraith was speaking for the first time. His eyes were cold as he looked at the recordings. 

“Perhaps they ruled once, but no longer. We are the inheritors of this age, the High Council. We are the strongest beings in the galaxy.”

“No, you’re not,” Winter laughed as she looked at him.  The sound sent a cold wind swirling around her that left trails of intricate frost across the table and chairs. “You never have been. You only persist in that delusion.”

“I would strongly advise you not to attempt to fight him,” she added. “I know that you are young and you’ve never met a Titan, but trust me when I say that fighting him is the last thing you will ever do. 

“You personally have also never faced a Vos’Rekan. You have only heard stories. Of those at this table, only I and Kiran’Telai’Nerathi have fought one.” 

Winter gestured to the Cer’Aleth, who nodded in agreement. Her words turned sharp as she looked back at Yaivon and then at Nurim.

“Speak about what you’ve done yourself, if you’re going to make that sort of claim. But understand this, the Titans are not Vos’Rekan. They are much greater.

“Vos’Rekan are wild animals, destructive beasts with too much strength and power. They are powerful and cunning, but lazy and only motivated by food. They are Primordial, but they only have brute strength to show for it. 

“The entire High Council together, even with me and with an army at our backs, would struggle to defeat a single Vos’Rekan, no matter what artifacts we use. There is a reason we call them natural disasters and hide behind the Great Divide. But the Titans rose to power in the early Void while fighting them and other beasts, one to one, and they crushed them utterly. They gloried in it.”

She had seen the battles for herself. The Titans had saved her from being devoured by a Vos’Rekan when they first found her. 

It had been attracted by the intense elemental essence she held, drawn to the river of celestial Ice and Wood energy in which she’d been born.

She still remembered the black chasm of its throat that drew her toward it, no matter how she fought, and the golden light that tore it to pieces, as well as the golden hand that had reached out to her.

“A young Titan might be threatened by a Vos’Rekan,” she continued as she relived the old memories, “but a mature one will tear the beast in half with his bare hands and build a world from its bones. By the time Aster Fall was built, the Vos’Rekan were hunted nearly to extinction. 

“The Titans are intelligent, wiser than you know, and they built this galaxy on the corpses of their enemies, including everything you take for granted. They are the Lords of the Void. And they only grow more powerful over time. 

“They are born of the Void, and they share the Heart of the Void. Their strength is part of nature, of the laws that underpin reality. You are just one person, but they are the sun. 

“If you want to bargain with this one, you should pray that he is in a good mood. Otherwise, you can only wait for judgment.”

Winter’s words were met with a shudder of fear that ran across the room.

At that moment, a shimmer of silver light appeared in the room, gathering around the High Seat. 

Then a golden form was seated there, his hands on the arms of the throne. 

Proud black horns curled back from his head as silver eyes studied the room, and golden lines of muscle marked his shoulders and arms. His fingers ended in sharp talons that touched the stone chair.

An aura that merged with the Void surrounded him, making it seem as if endless silver stars were flowing through the space. It felt like the half of the room behind him had suddenly disappeared, flowing away into the distance of another age.

His features were elegant with high cheekbones, a noble forehead that swept up to his horns, and dark hair that flowed down his back. He was wearing a dark cloak that merged with the space behind him, its surface sparkling with ancient stars, and on his right arm there was a translucent crystal bracer that held a sense of blazing heat and ice.

The pressure radiating from his domain was enough to bring the room to its knees. It felt like he had descended from a higher dimension or the First Age, when only force and strength ruled.

As soon as Winter saw him, her eyes went wide and she rose to her feet. Of those gathered there, she was the only one capable of standing immediately.

“Titan....” she whispered, as a smile leapt unbidden to her lips. Delight bubbled up in her heart.

“I understand you’ve been talking about me,” Sam said with a smile that promised destruction. “I think it’s time we had a chat.”