Path of the Deathless

159 (I) Grievance [II] [Book 4 Beginning]

-by Valor Thann159 (I)

Grievance [II]

"Back away from him, now!"

The words escaped Roland as a growl, and he didn't even realize he'd spoken them until a second thereafter. Flaring embers danced around his hand, and the outline of a longbow appeared. However, Valor ignored him altogether, and the Starhawk turned, uttering a single word.

Roland's body stiffened. The Starhawk's voice was somewhere between a command and a plea, and the Town Lord stood down, but kept his gaze locked on Valor Thann. The lich, for that matter, remained utterly focused on the subject of his loathing, the Starhawk himself.

"Right now is the only chance I might get to understand what you have done, to understand what you have taken from the Great One." Valor Thann’s interruption was cold and immediate, and the Starhawk just sighed, sounding too exhausted for someone so powerful.

"It matters not that we are caged within this dimension or in grave danger. Before anything can be decided by anyone,” Valor briefly looked at Uva, and especially the colors seeping out from her eyes, "I need to know what your relationship with the Great One is. How you and the other Ascendants became divine. I am a shattered remnant of myself, Matthew, but I still remember certain things, and being in your presence has brought other memories back to me, few of them pleasant."

A brief silence settled between them, and the tension in the room rose. Just then, the Dimensionality outside quivered. It was like something was trying to tear through the static manner lining the space around them again.

"As much as I appreciate the drama," the bespectacled orc began, "it's best that we deal with this as soon as possible. I will be very upset if this run of mine ends at the hands of the Tarrasque just as the Starhawk is about to emotionally admit his great wrongdoing."

The Ascendant hesitated. He shot Roland a brief glance, and then he began to speak.

"But why?" Uva asked. Her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why not simply have you executed or enslaved?"

Just then, a gap opened up in the Dimensionality beyond, and a deafening roar shook the world. It started as a low growl and finally died down as a screech, and something about that voice reminded Roland of the Omenborn somehow. Judging from the look on his son's face, Adam was thinking the very same thing.

"Yeah, you might want to speed this up," Georges commented, looking nervous. "And we might want to figure out our own way out of here as soon as possible right after. I'm sure as shit not looking forward to finding out what that thing's diet is."

"Anything it can fit in its mouth," the automata-clad orc helpfully provided.

the Starhawk continued.

"Wait, the Light-Curse existed then?" Adam asked.

the Starhawk said,

"And the Great One," Valor said, bringing the topic back on point, "what did you do with them? How did you become an Ascendant?"

the Starhawk said. TheStarhawk paused then, considering his words.

"And what does that mean?" the orc Biomancer asked, seeming genuinely curious now.

The Starhawk drew in a shuddering influx of mana, flickering in and out of existence.

Adam breathed.

the Starhawk noted.

"Phylacteries," the lich spat. "The ritual of the dichotomous soul. That is why you have created them; to part the Great One's power."

the Starhawk said.

"So that is why you've been gathering other sacred relics. Other Sacred Phylacteries," Uva muttered. "The Forgotten Ascendants are not dead. They cannot be dead. The Great One remembers them, albeit in a confused fashion. If you return the Phylacteries, perhaps they could be fully remembered and thus resurrected once more."

the Starhawk finished.

"Your theory," the dark-robed mused, cocking his head. "You are not sure, great god."

the Starhawk admitted.

"You, miserable, damnable ," Valor seethed. He drifted closer to the Starhawk, and Roland took a step toward Valor. Adam froze, unsure how to respond, but Uva didn't.

She directed one of her strands at Roland. "Give them time. This must be settled."

The Town Lord regarded the Psychomancer's mana and met her eyes. She looked as resolute as he was, and the nervousness on Adam's face reached new heights. Slowly, Roland offered the Umbral the slightest of nods, and she returned it. A soft breath left Adam, and he calmed somewhat.

"Have you any idea what you have done, what you yet risk?" Valor pointed his right hand at the Starhawk, and the crystalline limb glistened briefly with Necromancy. "The Great One lay dead, having spent ages slumbering, dreaming calmly, until you managed to defile its dreams. You have interrupted and reshaped the mind of a sleeping god. And for what? Your own selfish gain, your own power."

"And now you lead an empire masquerading as a Republic, and your protection has become expansion." Valor let out a snort of disgust. "And you struck at the very people who let you into their homes and offered you hospitality. How often this turns out to be the case."

the Starhawk said.

Valor drifted back slightly. “You mean…”

The Starhawk looked down in shame.

And as if to add weight to the Starhawk's statement, something smashed against the veil of Dimensionality again. Once more, the Tarrasque's primal bellows shook the ruined town of Blackedge.

"So you were not intending to make your champion, Roland Arrow, a god?" Uva asked with a frown on her face.

Roland did a double-take at that. "? Why would you think that?"

"Because that is what Master Inquisitor Sijik stated as his assumed truth when I interrogated him," she answered.

Roland's surprise was doubled. "You captured Master-Inquisitor Sijik? When?"

"The Inquisitors decided to take a little detour toward the gate currently occupied by your boy," the wand-wielding said, his grin growing. "Tragically, instead of facing a mob of incompetent Vultags, they were assailed along the way by a small army of…" The orc couldn't help but giggle. "...gray-skinned Necrotechs."

Roland's mouth opened slightly. Adam let out a brief sigh. "A has happened, Father. I'll explain everything later. If there is a later."

"The other Ascendants, do they know?" Valor asked, ignoring the interruptions.

the Starhawk confirmed. Then his body shook.

"And what does that entail?" Valor pressed.

"They can’t possibly—" Adam gasped. "What do you mean by cost? Do you mean the Ascendants… They can't possibly be thinking about our people, can they?"

the Starhawk said, though it was clear that he disagreed.

Valor skeletal hands tightened into fists, but the god continued without pause. “

"Unchangeable ?" Valor snapped. The Legendary Pathbearer sounded livid. "You are trying to usurp the very mind and being of a fallen god. One even its children don't understand. One that has provided the Abyss with !"

the Starhawk said, his voice filled with mourning.

"Broken Moon," Adam whispered. His gaze swayed from face to face until he found his eyes locked with his father. And in that moment, both Arrows shared a look of sour misery.

"It's true," Roland said. "It's part of the reason why you were born at Blackedge. Why I've been here for so many years." And Roland clenched his jaw before the next words finally left his mouth. "It is the reason why I descended into the Abyss with the Eclipsebreakers, why I disobeyed a direct command from the Republic, from the other Ascendants. It's why I escalated the war and sacked Submission."

"I don't… I don't understand," Adam muttered. His hand was beginning to shake. “Sullain was not lying?”

"No," Roland said softly. "He wasn't. I didn't intend for…" The Town Lord stopped himself and closed his eyes. "It doesn't matter what I intended. A city was burned. Countless innocents were killed. All so that I could steal a few Sacred Phylacteries stored in the Vicar's vault."

Adam looked ill when Roland finished. He turned away from his father entirely, and that ripped Roland's heart wide open.

"Wow, this was quite the story," the orc Biomancer said, sounding pleased that he managed to hear the entire accounting before getting killed. "The Challenger applauds the audacity of your comrades, and he commends you for your willingness to stand against them. It must wound your soul so terribly.”

the Starhawk said, derision heavy in his voice. He held out a hand, gesturing pleadingly at Valor.

And for the first time, the lich's posture softened. He looked away from the Starhawk and nodded in understanding. "It is a weakness that you are not alone in. It is a weakness that I understand as well. But still, it changes nothing."

The Starhawk nodded in agreement.

"Satisfied? No, I will not be satisfied. Not after all I've learned. But I will aid you, Starhawk. I will aid you regardless of the wrongs you have committed. For you alone seem to be still trying to do something right."