The Empire of Zeth/Chapter 8

Images begin to form form the void. The blackness fades, and an alien world appears before them. Lights made of braided glowing mushrooms and crystals glowing with fires of indescribably colors light the room they now stand it. It's cold and wet, and yet somehow familiar. Evy stares out at a world she barely remembers. Power flows through the room. Its in the walls, in the ceiling, in the floor - even in the air. Runes of magic float everywhere, saturating all they touch. A drow woman lies in a ornate stone bed, breathing hard. Her belly is mounded with the child about to be born. A male drow clutches her hand, and she cries out in pain.

"Push, my beloved... push!" He encourages her. She cries out in pain once more and pushes with all her might, and another cry fills the room. Evy is forced to look on as she is born. "It's a girl!" The man who was her father declares happily. He hands the little baby Evy to his wife, and Evy's mother. "You have the right of naming. What will you call her?" The drow woman stares into baby Evy's eyes and smiles. "Her name is Eveline, after my grandmother." He father seems pleased. "Eveline Hallowmere! What a wonderful name my dear! We should cele-"

The scene changes. Evy is about a year old now. Her mother is walking her around the room, answer the precocious girl's constant flood of curious questions about the world, their kingdom, the people they see, etc. A messenger walks in. "High King Dak'than, I bring news from the shadow walkers." Evy's father had been watching his little girl with a contented smile on his face. His face immediately falls at the news.

"What news of our enemy?" High King Dak'than asks the messenger. "Only... only one came back alive. He said they are preparing something... That the temporal incursions we've seen so far were merely a test. The king looks visibly disturbed. "Only a test... Send for the dark riders! We must prep-"

"Temporal incursions? What does that mean?" mutters Lord Tristan. The group of four humans watch the scenes unfold from the sidelines. Evy watches from a distance away, but unlike them she doesn't seem to be able to do anything but watch unblinkingly as the scenes unfold. "I don't know." says Archwizard Main. "But it could have something to do with the destruction of their civilization. If Evy is one year old in this memory, this must have occurred only a year or two before the annihilation."

The scene shifts again. Evy now looks to be about 3, and is fencing with a fully grown drow soldier while her parents watch. She parries and reposts his strikes with alarming agility and coordination for a girl of her extremely young age. The bout ends with tiny Evy sending the rapier flying from his hands and leveling her sword at his throat. Her parents both jump to their feet, clapping jubilantly.

"Excellent, Eveline, excellent! Amazing form and technique! You are a true prodigy!" her father praises her. "We could not be more proud of you!" her mother adds warmly.

Ranth and Master Garath watch little toddler Evy as she talks animatedly with her mother. "She looks so happy and carefree..." mutters Ranth. "The worst is yet to come..." Garath replies. "No great trauma comes without great loss..."

Evy grins widely and takes a large bow... and the scene changes again. They are not in a dark room with a strange crystal decanter in the center. It holds a glowing green liquid that pulsates with power. High King Dak'than stands near the decanter with Evy, who looks to be almost 5 now. "I know it's highly unusual, first emissary. But my daughter has passed all the exams with perfect marks. She is ready for the ritual, young age or no. I didn't even pass with marks as high as hers if you recall..."

The drow he addresses looks ancient beyond measure. The skin droops from every inch of his milky white flesh. "You are right to bring her here, Dak'than. She is ready." Evy's father turns to her and says. You're ready for this, Evy. You're the strongest drow I've ever seen." Evy bridles. "Even stronger than you, papa?" He chuckles and ruffles her hair. "Well, maaaaybe not quite yet! But if you keep traaainnninnggg..." She giggles.

High King Dak'than steps back and nods to the ancient drow. "Drink from the goblet, young Eveline." He says to her. "Retrieve the power that is you blood right, and claim it for yourself. It is time." Evy moves toward the goblet, her eyes fixated on the swirling liquid. She picks it up and looks at her father. He nods slightly. Evy takes a drink from the goblet and sets it down. For a moment, nothing happens, then a brilliant green light envelops the girl. She screams and it explodes from her body... then the scene shifts again.

"Is that the source of the drow's power?" muses Archwizard Malin. "I wonder what it could be... possibly the blood of the good they slew to escape their eternal bondage?"

The scene forms in the drow king's throne room. Evy looks to be 5 years old now, and fences with no less then 5 fully grown drow at once. She swiftly disarms them all and claims victory, bowing deeply to her father. "Wonderful, Eveline. You are now official one of the nine Archons of Drowvith, replacing Archon Gun'kesh, who is now retired. An old looking man bows to Evy. "Is is my honor to be replaced by such a promising young warrior. You-"

Without warning, screams echo from all around them. Lights flare and die in quick succession and there is a smell of blood on the air. "No, it's not possible!" cries High King Dak'than. "We defeated them! Crushed their temporal focuses! They can't have come back from that..!" The screams echo from everywhere as shimmering blue portals open and close in the walls, floors, and ceilings. Horrific creatures composed of tentacles, half-rotted flesh, bone, and ever-flowing blood comes through the portals. They have too unblinking eyes all over their bodies, and their screams are indescribable. Even in a dream, all four humans clap their hands to their ears in pain at a sound their minds cannot even begin to comprehend.

The creatures bodies undulate and shift, never remaining in the same form for long. One moment they will have humanoid appendages, the next masses of tentacles explode out of their flesh and fade. Ranth's skin crawls just looking at them - creatures like these should not even exist!

"PROTECT THE ROYAL FAMILY!" Shout the guards lining the walls of the throne room. High King Dak'than draws an shimmering rapier - one that Ranth recognizes somehow as being the sword Evy fought on the train with, and engages the largest of the creatures, who is easily three times the size of the rest. The battle is furious and bloody. The drow cast magic of such fearsome power that it makes even Archwizard Malin flinch. He knew instinctively that just attempting to cast one of those spells would immolate him instantly.

The drow slay more and more of the creatures, but there are just too many. One by one the guards fall to the endless horde of monstrosities pouring through the portals. Evy fights in formation with 8 other drow, who cast fight with magic and rapiers in perfect unison. They are so coordinated you could almost think they were performing some dance they'd performed hundreds of times. Eventually, though, only the nine archons remain as all of the lower power royal guards are slain one by one by the ever-flowing horde of eldritch horrors.

Evy's mother casts chains of powerful spells while the archons protect her. She targets the portals, chanting an an alien tongue that hurts the humans ears even in a dream. She closes portal, after portal, after portal, but they just keep opening more of them. They hold their own for what seems like an eternity without tiering or faltering... until the doors to the throne room burst open. The bodies of the guards outside litter the hallways as more horrors pour in. They go from being evenly matched to being overwhelmed once more.

One by one the archons are slain. Which each death the group becomes less coordinated and their effectiveness at holding back the horde wavers. A few break through the line and charge at the queen. She blasts them with raw power instantly obliterating them, but more quickly take their place. One finally reaches her. It slashes her with a tentacle, and Evy's mom is nearly torn in half. Evy's falters in her battle tactics. "M-Mommy!!!!" she breaks formation and runs to her mother's side, slaying the eldritch monster that mortally wounded her mother with one mighty swing of her rapier.

High King Dak'than cries out to Evy and takes her position in the line or archons, trying to join in their battle dance... though his success is limited. Evy sobs and holds her mother's hand as she slowly fades away. "I love you... Eveline... Never... forget.." She dies in Evy's arms, and a flash of brilliant light flows to the girl. Evy leaps to her feet and screams in a voice that would pierce the heavens. Every monster in the room disintegrates and every portal closes.

For a moment, the panting archons and king think its over as Evy falls to her knees and wails... But more portals open and the horde resumes its inexorable rampage. "Eveline! Can.. Can you do that again!?" High King Dak'than cries out. Evy gets to her feet and tries to scream, but this time only half of the monsters disintegrate and only half the portals close as the power her mother gave her with her dying breath begins to fade...

Evy falls to her knees and weeps, her rapier tumbling from her hands to lie at her feet on the bloody floor. There are now only three archons remaining. One by one they are slain, until only High King Dak'than and Evy remain. All of a sudden, the horde stops moving. A massive portal of a shining blood red too perfect to look at opens in the center of the throne room.

A being walks through the gateway. For a mortal to look upon his appearance would be to go insane. Evy's mind serves as a buffer for the four humans and they are able look at him without their minds shredding to pieces like string cheese, but they are still shaken beyond measure. For such a creature to exist defies all the logic of the physical world they can comprehend.

The being.. "walks" to the center of the room, though to there is no adequate word to describe how to really moves. When it speaks, the humans feel a pressure beat down on them that they cannot escape from.

"HiGh KiNg DaK'tHaN, yOuR tRoUbLeSoMe RaCe'S cOnStAnT iNtErFeRaNcE iN oUr PlAnS eNdS hErE!" it says in a way they defies all perceptual sensory the humans possess. Evy's father charges the creatures and engages with it. What follows is impossible to describe, but he does battle with the prime eldritch horror for hours while Evy can only watch, its unnatural power pressing her down and preventing her from doing anything. The high king scores many blows on the thing, but nothing seems to stop it for long.

After a duel of impossible length, he makes one small slip in his assault, but that was all it took. The creature ensnares him, and he cannot move. He looks down at his daughter weeping on the floor at his feet and says. "Eveline... RUN." Then the horrifying creature tears his very existence asunder.

Evy screams even louder than before in rage and pain as she is forced to watch her father obliterated. Power of a blood red brilliance flows from where he stood to the girl as she leaps to her feet. His rapier flies into her hand at a speed to fast for the eye to see. All the bodies of the drow around them crumple and collapse in one themselves until there are only tiny specs of energy, which flood to the girl in a torrent.

"iMpOsIbLe! ThE tImElInE iS NoT yEt aLiGnEd! It cries out in fear. Evy's feet leave the floor and she floats into the air. An aura forms around who's level of power could only be described as godlike.

Malin old eyes fly wide. "She absorbed... she absorbed all the drow's power. All the power of a slain god shared across an entire race, now housed inside one person. She BECAME the a new god!?"

Evy's eyes and mouth open. They are nothing but pure white energy, so powerful it spills out. She raises a finger and points at the creature. Lines of energy meet with a terrifying clash.... and the whole scene freezes.

Chapter 9: Child of Prophecy

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