PreCursive
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Chapter 14 - Divine History Lesson
🕑 Added 2023-07-30 20:38:49 +0000 UTCWe stepped out directly into the sunlight outside Vandimar’s butcher shop. Taking a guess based on the intensity of the sun, we might have only been inside for an hour and a half. It must have only been about midday.
Aware that we were out in public again, I tried to adopt a more subservient pose standing behind and to the left of Azarus.
Without turning to face me, Azarus grunted. “Going home.” He set off back in the direction we had come into town from.
I followed him without a word, aware of the eyes on us.
……………………………………..
Once we reached the secluded path that led back to Azarus’s house, I relaxed and sped up until I was walking side by side with him. He glanced at me and nodded.
“So,” I said. “Interesting character. Not what I was expecting from what you’d told me about him.”
“Hrmm, think I was too harsh. Van isn’t a bad guy, just a bit flighty.” Azarus mused. “Wasn’t some huge crime he committed, anyway. Just got mixed up with bad types and owed some gambling debt.”
I nodded. “And that Bleddyn guy? What’s your take on this whole mentorship thing?”
“Hill folk,” Azarus answered. “They’ve always been a bit strange. Well, stranger than the rest of you humes, anyway. No offense.”
“Hey, I’m not even from around here. Really not from around here. Only point of contact I have with the rest of humanity in these parts is Grey, and I guess that Rachel chick.” I said to him, unbothered.
Azarus turned his head slightly to look at me. “So, what’s the story there? You haven’t been around here long enough to really know anyone.”
I shook my head. “I don’t, not really. Know her, I mean. She was just a member of the caravan that, uh, ‘took me in’ after I was dumped on this planet. I only saw her a few times after they were raided. None of us could really talk to each other, or even wanted to after what had happened. The raiders didn’t want us to, either. Saw a few people get beaten during rest stops for trying.”
Azarus shook his head. “Typical knife ears.” He muttered darkly.
I was quiet for a moment. “So those were really elves? They seemed so…hateful. Brutal. In stories back home, elves were always depicted as kind, and wise. Not bloodthirsty murderers.”
Azarus stopped in the middle of the road. I continued for a moment before realizing and stopping. Turning around, I could see that he had a queer, hesitant look on his face.
Scratching his chin, Azarus spoke. “Answer to that question is complicated, ya know? Grey might be the better person for it.”
I looked him in the eye. “Yeah, maybe,” I said to him. “But I’m asking you.”
Taking a deep breath, Azarus nodded. “Alright, but let’s keep walking.” He told me. “We still got something I’d like to do after we get home.” He set off again, and I followed him.
We walked in silence for a moment while Azarus gathered his thoughts.
“Gods.” He started. “The answer to that question lies with the Gods.”
“Gods, huh,” I said thoughtfully. “So, they’re real here? It’s hard to tell something like that, back home.”
“Aye,” Azarus said somberly. “Sometimes we wish they didn’t exist either. Now, this all goes back thousands of years. The date wouldn’t have meant anything to you before now, but for this it does. We’re currently living in the year 2347 SI, or System Initialized. Now before the System, that was really the age of the Gods. Back in those days, there were fourteen of them. Seven Gods of Order, and seven Gods of Chaos. Way I’ve been told, that didn’t always translate to good and evil, but it was a decent guidepost.”
He paused to collect his thoughts.
“What history we still have after all the devastation of the war, tells us they were mighty fractious. They’d get into scraps all the time, for thousands of years before the System was even an idea. But something changed between ‘em a couple of hundred years before the System. Went rabid, they did. Launched a bloody great war between, well, everyone. All the planets back then were connected in a huge teleportation network. The fighting stretched across all of ‘em, and all the races that lived on ‘em. The War in Heaven, it’s called now.”
“Back up for a second.” I interrupted. “Teleportation network?”
“Aye.” Azarus nodded. “It’s still around today, but we’re closed off from all but one of the planets, and relations are strained with who we still have access to. Plenty of people over the years have tried to repair it, but can’t make heads or tails of the damn thing. Way they talk, it’s not something that can be fixed from our end. But, getting back to it.” He shot me a look.
I held up my hands in surrender.
“So, from what I’ve been taught, the War happens, and Order loses. They lose hard. They only manage to take out one of the Chaos gods, while all but two of the Order gods are slaughtered in the fighting. One of those gods rules the planet we’re still connected to, Indiqua.” He told me. “Set themselves up as the immortal leader of the Orcs. Went bloody great for them, way I hear it. She raised ‘em up, and now they’re more powerful than the Kingdom and the Principality combined.”
I nodded. “Orcs, huh,” I murmured.
“Orcs,” Azarus confirmed. “Ruled by the bloody Goddess of Prosperity herself.”
“So, what happened with the elves then?” I asked. “Are they being led by one of those Chaos gods?”
Azarus sighed. “No, that would have probably been better than what actually happened. See, elves are still attached to the god they always were. The God of Freedom. Except these days, he’s just called the Mad God. Something went wrong with him in the last days of the War. Maybe it was the War itself. Maybe it was something a Chaos God did. We don’t know, but we know what happened. The War ended, and he came back to the elves different. More a slavering, bloodthirsty beast than the wild-hearted lover of adventure he was supposed to have been.”
Azarus sighed.
“He changed ‘em, over time.” He told me. “That’s what Gods do, apparently. From what I’ve been told, they were like what you said. Before, they were kind, and wise, and free-spirited. More spirits of nature that walked like you and me than a normal person. They’d grow cities out of a forest that would bring a tear to yer eye. Peacemakers, too. It was them that kept tensions between the humans and the dwarves down. But, after a while, that changed. First, they tried to treat him. Who bloody knows how? How do you fix a God? That didn’t work, and then he started to affect them. They got more violent, less kind. They lashed out at other races. Then, they went to war with them, because by then the only thing he wanted was blood.”
I nodded to show I was still listening. “So, what about us?” I said, gesturing back and forth between us. “Do humans and dwarves have to worry about a god driving us crazy?”
Azarus shook his head. “Nah, the Gods that humes and dwarves worshipped died in the war. They were two of the Order gods, and they died with the rest of them.” He gave me a serious look. “Honestly, after seein’ what happened to the elves, good riddance. Don’t like the idea of someone or something that can influence me without even trying. Don’t go spreading that around though.”
I gave him a curious look. “Why not?”
“Well, even though they’re all dead, there are still some people that worship ‘em. Don’t need some god-botherer getting up in my business ‘cause I don’t think much of 'em.” He said gruffly, making a dismissive gesture.
Azarus went quiet for a moment. I let him, absorbing what he’d told me. Good God gone bad, eh.
“Getting back to it, the years after the elves went nuts were pretty damn bad.” He said to me. “Right after the System happened, when things were already bad. Just made things go from bad to worse. Course, it’s not like I was there. This all happened in my ancestor’s ancestors’ times. But we know they didn’t last as an Empire after that. They just started fighting until they couldn’t fight anymore. Turned to raiding and pillaging when they couldn’t muster up a fighting force. You must’ve came across one of the groups that does slave catching on the side. Bad luck, that.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “And right after that caravan captured me too.”
“Hmm.” Azarus nodded.
We walked quietly for a moment. I was digesting what he had told me when thought struck.
“Hey, you said the Chaos Gods won that war, right?” I asked Azarus.
“Yeah? Why?”
“Well, what happened to the rest of them? You said six of them survived, right?”
Azarus snorted. “Hells if I know. It’s not like I made a study of this, yeah? It’s just common knowledge.”
“Oh,” I said, disappointed.
“Ah, well,” Azarus shrugged. “I do know that none of them are on Vereden though, so there’s at least that. Got enough trouble with the Mad God.”
I nodded quietly at that.
We spent the rest of the walk home in silence.
Felt more comfortable, though.
……………………………………...
We arrived back at Azarus’s house before long. Couldn’t have been more than ten minutes after we’d finished our conversation.
I stood off to the side while Azarus unlocked his door and then followed him inside.
“Grey!” He shouted in the entryway. “We’re back! Where are you!”
“In the kitchen!” I heard a weary voice cry from farther in.
We both went farther into the house, Azarus in front of me. Before long, we entered the kitchen. Sitting in his wheelchair at the table, Grey was slumped over a mug of something with steam rising from it. Seeing us come into the kitchen, he flashed a brief, tired smile our way.
“Well? How did it go? Were you able to acquire Fleshcrafting?” He asked me.
I nodded at him, slightly concerned. “Yeah, went fine. I ended up going for Surgery like I said I would. How about you, though? You look worn out.”
Grey grimaced. “Ah, well. Let’s just say that my work for the Prince is quite exhausting with this collar around my neck.”
Azarus leaned up against the wall near the doorway. “You finished then?” He asked awkwardly, crossing his arms.
Grey nodded at him. “Yes, indeed I did. I packed everything into the crate already.”
“I’ll take it up to the mansion tomorrow then.” Azarus sighed.
I looked between the two of them. “What does this guy even have you making?”
“Higher tier items that are difficult to acquire through normal means.” Grey sighed as well. “Potions, elixirs, enchantment disks of greater strength, magical tools. With my level of knowledge, I’m capable of producing many things. And unfortunately, under a slave compulsion, I have no choice but to obey.”
Azarus grunted, frowning. “Sure he’s making a damn fortune hawking all of it, too. The bastard.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Grey whispered to himself thoughtfully before forcing a smile. “But enough of that! Now that you’re home, I believe you told me you had more plans for the evening, Azarus?”
I looked over at Azarus with a raised eyebrow. Seeing me looking at him, he nodded at me.
“Aye, I do.” He said, before walking over to the table and sitting down in a chair. “We’re going back out in a bit, I reckon.”
“Are we going to try and get the other Profession I can still get here? Wildshaping, right?” I asked him.
Azarus shook his head. “No, we can do that tomorrow, or even the next day depending on how today goes. No, I’m thinking it’s time to get you some levels. We’re heading out to the forest to kill some monsters.”
I straightened up in my chair. “Wait, seriously? How’s that going to work? I don’t know how to fight at all.”
“It’s fine, I’m not expecting you to fight much. We’re pretty much going to go out, I’ll grab some of the weaker monsters, and you’ll kill ‘em with a weapon I’ll give you.” Azarus said dismissively.
“I mean, are you sure?” I said doubtfully.
I wasn’t nervous about being around literal monsters that could rip me apart at all. Honest.
Grey cleared his throat. “I assure you, Nathan. You won’t be in any true danger, at least at this point. Azarus is more than capable of dealing with the low-tier monsters that spawn on these lands.”
“Besides,” Azarus interjected. “You’re going to have to get over it. If you want to advance at all, you need to get used to fighting monsters.”
Grey shot him a look.
Azarus held his hands up defensively. “Hey, I’m just saying. You know I’m right.”
I took a deep breath before nodding. “Alright. Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”
“Good,” Azarus said, standing up from his seat. “Follow me to the forge out back. I’ve got some weapons you can choose from.” Having said that, he moved to the door that led outside on the back wall of the kitchen. Opening it, he exited into the backyard, leaving the door open behind him for me to follow.
I exhaled and stood up to follow him as well.
“Nathan, a moment.” I heard from Grey.
Turning my head to face him, I saw that he had a comforting smile on his face.
“Truly, it won’t be that bad. Although bluntly said, Azarus is correct. Combat is simply a fact of life if you desire any form of strength in this world.” Grey said. “It’s especially important if you wish to free either of us from our current situation.”
“No pressure then,” I muttered under my breath. Nodding at Grey, not trusting myself to speak, I followed Azarus out the back door.
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