[Hlaeth] Ch 26 - A Study in Death

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            “Was there any consistency or pattern among those mutating, such as might come from a single power inflicting such evils upon folk?” I asked calmly, going for more information.

            “Yes and no,” Eldritch went on confidently, at last on safe ground. “Those who traveled through the same area tended to be warped and twisted in the same ways and manners… but that could change for the next group passing through the same area some time later, and be completely and wildly different from those just a short distance away. A uniform pattern of change, or a single source, was impossible to perceive or understand.”

            Well, didn’t that sound all kinds of inviting. “But no specific sense of a Divine power, or any single power at all?” I asked curiously.

            “The only unifying element is the dimensional instability in the area, but what causes it is unknown. It may well be this very instability that powers the strengthening of the rest of the Veil, if it is a constant testing of the Veil.”

            “Interesting.” It looked like I was definitely going into the high-end Divination cookbook for what was coming… which could very well be the reason I was here. “If you were to describe the mutations in a simple manner, how would you do so?”

            He hesitated for a moment at the question, obviously recalling numerous sights. “Partial and mixed alterations to creatures, as if a powerful influence was seeking to change them one way, paused, and then started changing them another, perhaps mixing them, perhaps keeping them separate, but in all cases changing them from what they were. Elemental, organic, Outsider, even Aberrant influences could and can be seen on creatures as they change and continue to change over time.

            “The very soil of the place has been shifted and altered so many times it has become a standard, unnatural yellow in hue, shifting properties between solid, liquid, and even gas or energy at random times and ways. The sandstorms of the Yellow Desert are heralds of oblivion, unleashing so many intense types of energy that they sweep away anything in their path that is not of the land already, obliterating it entirely.”

            “That sounds monumentally unwelcoming,” I had to admit. “It sounds like one would need to be a complete fool or very desperate to go there.”

            All of the elves, even Eldritch, could not stop slight smiles. “You sound like a very desperate human,” the queen pointed out in a clear soprano.

            “Ah, wanting to go home does make one a bit like that, Your Majesty,” I acknowledged.

            “If I asked, would I be allowed to hold your Staff, Master Aelryinth?” she asked, almost challenging me.

            I let go of Mortus Dius and let it stand there. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”

            “Queen Aurylusya...” Eldritch the Elder High Mage immediately started to speak.

            “Of Heaven,” the queen repeated to what was probably her teacher, waving off his warning. “Do you truly not believe his words?”

            The ancient elf winced. “There may well be ways to fake such things, Your Majesty…”

            “If they can imitate the Wrath of Heaven, they are definitely more adept than I am,” I had to say to that, bringing up the electrum blaze of Heavenly eldritch power on my palm.

            It was literally the essence of Heaven, and you saw it with your soul as much as your eyes. There was no way to mistake it for anything else, once you knew what it actually was.

            If they’d never seen it exactly, they at least knew Heavenly power, and only the old fart had problems looking at it, which said something about him and his monarchs.

            “I would see this Staff first,” the king said, rising to his feet.

            Mortus obligingly zipped over in front of him, hovering just off the ground in reach. The king lifted an eyebrow at me. “It is a responsibility Mortus Dius takes seriously,” I shrugged.

            The king nodded slowly at the fact my Staff had a Name, and reached out to grasp it.

            He was a post-Twenty, so I didn’t expect him to have a great deal of trouble taking the memory hit. His violet eyes narrowed intently as he considered the sights he was seeing, analyzing, judging, sensing, and feeling the deaths of those I’d killed. The very nature of their souls was apparent, as well as the means and methods by which they’d died.

            It was a lot to take in, but he did it with extreme discipline and spiritual resilience.

            At last, he released my Staff with a little gasp, his eyes snapping over to my bespectacled gaze conveying both shock and a very wary respect for what I’d done.

            “My apologies for having doubted you, Master Aelryinth. Your history indicates you are cleaving to a clear standard of honor, despite the sheer amount of battle you have seen. You… are a great defender of your people, sir.”

            “I have been lucky enough not to have to do battle with many simple and greedy idiots, and forced to battle many, many things that rather urgently needed to die,” I shrugged away his words, as Mortus Dius zipped back to my grasp.

            “Some of those were very impressive enemies, Master Aelryinth,” he inclined his head to me.

            “We rise to fight those we must fight, or we die, Your Majesty.”

            “That is a harsh truth.” He hesitated as he turned to his queen. “This… is a grim tally of fearsomely evil creatures, my love. It is not that I think you cannot handle it, but you may not wish to…”

            She eyed my Staff speculatively, then myself. “May I inquire as to why you wear your Spectacles, Magos? They do not seem to be… necessary?”

            I kindly reached up and took them off.

            All three elves had to restrain the hiss of surprise at the charred remnants of my eyes, the Hellscar that cut across my face only accentuating them. The faint silver sparks in the depths of my eyes were obviously a leaking of power, not some other form of eyes.

            “I saw something in the aether between worlds that wasn’t suitable for mortal eyes, so my eyes tried to turn around and eat my brain,” I explained in patient neutral tones. “My Wrath reacted and destroyed them. When I regenerated them, they tried to do the same thing again, and I had to Burn them away a second time.” I put my Glasses back on calmly. “I did manage to arrange some matters so that my Lord Mithar came in and put the Spear of a god through the thing, so perhaps we are equal now, if it even still lives.”

            “And the scarring?” the king asked politely. “One can see the Evil upon it, Master Aelryinth…”

            I held out my hand, and Mortus Dius zipped back to my hand. His head raised, and the hollow portion within disgorged a little dot, which expanded into my hand.

            The shrunken skull of a horned devil, one the king recognized instantly from my Staff, slapped into my hand. Half-crystallized black bone ignited with the black and red Banefire against Fiends, tinted to the devil it arose from, and malevolent points of fire determined to Burn all that it came from ignited in its sockets.

            “Meet Gorgriespiel, the devil who gave it to me before I slew him. It is meant to be a Mark, a Branding, a Curse by Hell upon me and my soul, a sign that I am to be hunted by Hell, that my fate will be grim when they catch me, and that I cannot escape them.” I did not conceal the amusement in my voice.

            “It does not seem to concern you a great deal…” the Queen murmured, unable to take her eyes from it, looking back and forth between Baneskull and Hellscar, clearly able to perceive the relationship.

            “A Hellscar feeds upon the Evil in the soul of those it is inflicted upon, Your Majesty,” I answered firmly. “I am Heavenbound, and between my Pact and this Mark, one could say I am exquisitely aware of any Evil which may sway my soul and my decisions.

            “Since it cannot feed on me, the Hellscar reacts to and feeds on the Evil in my surroundings. Pointedly, it is reacting to the xenophobia and racism emanating primarily from your High Mage here, and from all the members of your Court previously.

            “Hell LOVES specism, which may or may not surprise you. Dividing mortal souls makes it so much easier to tempt and destroy them when they should be unified, after all.”

            Their expressions indicated that they were all uneasy and a bit upset for being found out that way.

            “Thus, the Hellscar is actually rather a boon to me. When it is pleasantly warm, it approves of my decisions. When it is painful, I am doing something it doesn’t like. It reacts instantly to the very presence of Evil at a fundamental level, and more specifically to the machinations of Hell and the workings of Sin. While the Hellscar can call out to the diabolic and even other Fiends close by and guide them to me… I can also use it to sense them, their influences, and their trails.

            “As Evil enjoys feeding upon itself, and Hell is also the realm of the punishment of souls for doing Evil, the Hellscar itself is getting quite the workout.”

            “Would not the great sensitivity to Evil constantly weigh at the mind and gnaw at the senses, even sanity?” Eldritch immediately pressed me, and the Hellscar throbbed pleasantly and even glowed slightly at the doubt, distrust, and suspicion in his questions, all of it fairly obvious to everyone and making him flush.

            “Oh, that is very much true, seeking to emphasize the fact that it is supposed to be a Curse, and Hell represents the most uncaring aspects of Law. Any Sin, however small or slight, is an imperfection that Hell can sense and WILL punish you for in the afterlife, and it would pressure me into punishing it now, if it could.

            “But I am not beholden to Law, and that power is a Curse upon the Evil, not upon the Good. The corruptive hypersensitivity can be tuned out, muted, and rendered down to easily manageable levels by filtering it through my Pact, among other methods. The other way to control it is to constantly engage in shrivening of the soul, inspecting and meditating upon my deeds and the how and why, and accepting the judgment of Heaven that I am not perfect, I will never be perfect, and that is how it is, because free will to choose makes me who I am.”

            They wanted to fidget nervously, because that was definitely not the sort of carefree life the elven were famous for trying to lead, and being actively held to a standard while an Evil Curse railed against you to do more Evil so it could punish you later was not something they would look forward to.

            “Let me just say that there hasn’t been a devil yet that has not been very irritated with the use I am making of this Hellscar, and leave it at that, shall we?” I put my Glasses back on over my empty sockets, smiling slightly.

            “The world I saw in your Staff, the billions of undead… that was your homeworld?” the king asked quietly, opting not to pursue the topic further, such as by asking about alternate ways to see the world.

            “It is indeed.”

            “And those undead… they are all dead?” he pressed further, clearly impressed.

            “It was them or us. We chose us,” I shrugged.

            “Such a modest reply for what must have been an apocalyptic battle!” he uttered in disbelief.

            “Well, it did take us a full year, although half of that was prep work for the major fighting. We started with about half a billion to blood everyone, geared and trained up properly, then brought the hammer down. I would not say it was easy, but we definitely got some tough mother’s children out of it, and we are still here.”

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