Fated (Chapter Sixty-Two)
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mindcrackloveChapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Sixty-Two
Kingdom of Kalt’on, Minecraftia. November 8, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
It had been silent for several hours when surprisingly Blade of all people broke the silence.
"Iirkolav. I have a question for you."
The older man turned and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
Blade motioned to Iirkolav's left leg. "I was wondering about that." Seeing his expression darken, Blade quickly moved to correct himself. "Not why you have it. Where you got it. It acts just like a regular leg and foot...but it's made of metal."
"Tranpar made it." Iirkolav told him. "He's a smart kid. He learned it..." He trailed off, glancing at Mitven, unsure if she wanted him to know.
Mitven nodded swiftly. "My people. The skettisren can make metal replacements for missing or damaged body parts."
Blade looked at her, impressed. "Are they an equal match for natural limbs?"
"Mostly, yes. They're more durable when made right as long as the circuits aren't damaged and the magic isn't disrupted."
"So...they're better."
Fate seemed to notice the gleam in Blade's eyes. "No, no. We're not turning you into a metal man."
He turned to her, looking upset. "Faaate!"
"Absolutely not!"
"You don't have time right now, anyway." Iirkolav grumbled. "Takes a long time to make the limbs. Tranpar used some old parts lying around, but he insisted that he'd make me a better one later."
"If there is a later." Mitven told him. "That leg might break before then and get you killed. Or you'll die to the Hostiles."
"Fun." Nia muttered. "I almost preferred the silence we were walking in before to all this dark conversation."
"What, would you rather have Story Time with Mitven, in which I tell you all about the horrors of the tunnels?"
"Sure. Why not?" Nia rolled her eyes.
"Shame I don't have any good stories, then. The tunnels are the safest place in all of Minecraftia."
"Oh! Oh! I have a story!” Fate raised a hand. "I promised Nia this one earlier."
Blade shot her a warning look but she cheerfully ignored him, starting to speak at a nod from Nia.
“So here's the hilarious story of the time Blade took off his pants." Both of Nia's eyebrows went up and Blade sighed in defeat, knowing he'd never manage to make Fate stop.
"So this goes back to Ashwatch, right before the hatching of the valk'vanor." Fate began. "It was a little before dusk, so everyone changing into their ceremonial armor before the big event. Blade and I had to share a tent, so we took turns changing. I got dressed no big deal and then we switched. I was waiting for him outside the tent, checking and rechecking myself to make sure I was ready, when suddenly I hear this loud crashing sound. I shrieked a little and jumped up, but then...then..." Laugher started to overtake her.
"Then Blade said, 'Don't worry, that was just the sound of my pants hitting the floor.'"
Practically the entire group except for Blade burst into hysterical laughter. Blade just sighed and put his masked face in his hands.
Fate continued to speak through her laughter. "The dolt forgot to take his sword belt off of his pants so when he kicked them off, his sword hit his shield that was on the floor and made the crashing sound."
Blade crossed his arms. "I was more focused on the whereabouts of my ceremonial sword. My regular one might have slipped my mind."
No one was really listening to him, however.
Onai spoke up after a couple minutes, his mind having jumped from one topic to another and had eventually landed on one that had been troubling him for awhile.
An odd thing that others may not have noticed.
“I noticed something odd earlier about the Skullblades.” His words got the attention of both Fate and Blade. “When we were fighting the Kalt’onians, I noticed that there wasn’t a single elementalist on our side except for Zel, Katrin, and I. Why is that? Can Skullblades not be elementalists?” This was one of his questions that the shadows wouldn’t provide the answer to, but he figured it was best to just ask a Skullblade anyway.
Blade and Fate exchanged looks. “You know more about this than I do.” Fate said quietly, prompting Blade to speak. He shrugged a little but didn’t argue the point.
“Elementalists are very rare amongst the Skullblades. Because we’re blessed by Vallor’roth, most other powers are rare or nonexistent among us, as a way to even the odds, I suppose. Consider how powerful elementalists are- you, for example.” Blade motioned at Onai. “Can you imagine the power that a Skullblade with your kind of elemental abilities would have?”
Onai shook his head. Such a thing was beyond even his comprehension.
“Exactly. Being an elementalist is genetic, so only certain family lines were ever elementalists. There was one line per clan, to be exact, and each clan had a different elementalist type- the Ashenhorns had darkness, the Sunspines had fire, and the Shadefangs had ice.
The Shadefang elementalist line ended during the time of the previous valk’vanor, the one before Mira. His name was….uh, was…” Blade hesitated, glancing at Fate for help.
“I think it was Calvarus?” Fate shrugged a little. “He never seemed that important.”
Blade rolled his eyes but continued. “Calvarus lived about eight hundred years ago, and his Caretaker was one of the two only ice elementalists in the clan at the time. When Calvarus was young, a Voidclaw, a child of the creator Altaria, broke through the barrier between Minecraftia and the Ender Void. The hole was sealed, but it was too late. The Voidclaw located the young valk’vanor and killed the Caretaker. Calvarus didn’t know better than to not trust the other dragon, and it looked so like him- Voidclaws are black and purple dragons- and the Voidclaw corrupted him into a monster. The Voidclaw was slain by the Skullblades for what he had done once he was discovered, but Calvarus was too far gone. He escaped the Skullblades and wreaked havoc across the world until he was finally taken down- not before he managed to kill his Caretaker’s brother, however.
“The Ashenhorn line ended about three hundred years ago, when Kaltaerion opened the gates to the nether and killed the entire clan- except, of course, for Blame the Controller. Even the darkness powers of Shatter the Dawn were no match for Kaltaerion, and he fell. All three of these deaths- Bloodfreezer, Frostwalker, and Shatter the Dawn- were well-known among the Skullblades and well documented. But it’s the fate of Flameforged Nightmare that no one is certain of.”
Flameforged Nightmare… Were it not for the interference of Norazdomu, she would have been found and the elementalist line would have yet been saved, as well as the Ashenhorns, without the need for the Mindcrackers to add Blame the Controller to their ranks.
But that would have led to the inevitable destruction of the world when Iilthrid eventually awoke, mad with corruption.
Thus, Flame was lost, but not forgotten.
“Flameforged Nightmare lived at the same time as Shatter the Dawn, but did not suffer his fate, being a Sunspine. Her father, where the elementalist in her blood came from, died from natural causes when she was young, leaving her the only elementalist Skullblade in the entire world once Shatter the Dawn was killed by Kaltaerion. She was strong and it seemed like she wasn’t going to die anytime soon, but then…she vanished.”
Nia frowned. “Vanished?”
Blade nodded. “She mysteriously disappeared one day. Her mother found her mask at the edge of the jungle along with a lot of blood and magical residue. She was sure her daughter had been slain, and many others said the same thing, but some said she had simply been…taken.” He shook his head. “We might never know. What killed or took her is a mystery.” He sounded annoyed, as if this was a murder that he had personally been sent to investigate and all he kept coming across were dead ends.
“So in short, Skullblades could be elementalists but not anymore.” Fate summarized.
“Unless one were to cross their line with an elementalist outside the clans. That would solve your elementalist problem, wouldn’t it?” Katrin tilted her head.
Blade began to speak but Fate interrupted. “No. It’s against Skullblade code to breed with non-Skullblades. Even being in a relationship with one is frowned upon.”
Iirkolav suddenly became very interested in the sand they were walking on.
Katrin frowned. “Why?”
“Half-Skullblades are a liability.” Blade answered. “Their true names are still a weakness, but they don’t hold the benefits that come from the exchange; they don’t have the blessing of Vallor’roth. They’re not stronger or faster than regular people, they cannot earn their masks, and they cannot earn their Skullblade name. It puts weakness in the Clans and solves nothing.”
Fate turned to Katrin and the elementalist could have sworn she saw a flash of silver in the Shadefang’s eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. “You have to remember something about Skullblades: We. Are. Not. Human. We seem similar, but we’re just not the same.”
Blade nodded in confirmation. “Skullblades split from humankind long ago, when Vallor’roth gave the first members of the clans their masks and cast the spell that would forever divide us from you and all other humans.”
Silence echoed in the group, but its oppressing sound was the most disturbing to Nessy. It allowed her to think dark thoughts that she had always tried to suppress.
I’m just like a half-Skullblade. A half-dragon…I’m a liability. I carry the scent of dragon, I attract all of our enemies, and I’m hated for what I am…but I barely have any dragon powers. Sure, I can fly and fight like a dragon, but I could only stand up to the weakest and youngest of dragons, and I’m so small I’m not worth much in a fight… Even my spatial manipulation powers are almost useless.
Nessy shoved her hands in her pockets and her eyes caught on the massive shape of Mokdal walking silently with them through the night. Now that was a real dragon. And as far as she knew, from what he and Iirkolav had said, he had helped their ancestors…had met her ancestor.
Nessy debated asking Mokdal what her ancestor was like, but the dragon intimidated her. She was so used to dragons wanting her dead on sight…
…then again, he might not even know what she was.
Instead, Nessy forced herself to walk forward and tap Iirkolav on the shoulder. “Iirkolav?”
He jerked a little bit, startled. “Huh? What?”
“What was my ancestor like?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Your…ancestor?”
“Yes. The Mindcracker. Do you…know what their name was?”
Iirkolav considered that, looking her over and considering who she could be descended from. “Half-dragon, purple eyes, cheaty-”
“It’s not cheating, it’s spatia-”
“Nebris.”
Nessy paused, looking at him oddly. “Huh?”
“Your ancestor. His name is Nebris.”
Nebris.
The name sent a shiver down Nessy’s spine, but it wasn’t unpleasant. “Nebris.” She whispered to herself.
Iirkolav nodded. “He’s a lot like you. Just a lot more headstrong, and with a lot fewer dragon powers. Still cheaty, though.”
Nessy tilted her head slightly. “You talk about him in the present tense. Why?”
Iirkolav sighed and glanced at the sky. “I don’t think that the Mindcrackers are as dead as they seem to be.”
Maybe because I saw my other self descend from the Vortex and pick up an orb.
“And I think that they can see us.”
Nessy shivered again, looking around.
“But…” A slight smile pulled itself across Iirkolav’s face. “If I know Nebris, then I know he’s proud to have you as a descendant.”
That gave Nessy a warm, happy feeling that she wasn’t too familiar with, but it didn’t bother her in the slightest.
-~-
Nebris smiled slightly to himself as he watched his orb. Nessy’s eyes passed over the space where his view was positioned without realizing he was there.
“Are you?” Nebris jumped slightly at the voice. He looked up to see Vechs watching him.
“What?”
“Are you proud of her?”
Nebris nodded. “Yes. I am. I’m glad that I have her as a descendant. She’s an interesting and worthwhile person.” He paused. “What about you? Are you proud of Nia?”
Vechs glanced back into his orb, and a smile spread across his face.
“Yes. Yes I am.”
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Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 01:51 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(@)(::)(@)(::)(@)
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Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 08:53 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 05:04 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 08:16 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 11:15 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 03:09 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 11th, 2015 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, December 14th, 2015 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 11:27 pm (UTC)Don't worry, people will have horrible violent deaths! ^^
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Date: Friday, December 11th, 2015 08:06 am (UTC)*Hand gets dangerously close to pulling the trigger*
-Anon Cami
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Date: Friday, December 11th, 2015 10:28 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Friday, December 11th, 2015 11:30 pm (UTC)Vorna didn't get a gore tag, though. She just...vanished. In the, um. Swamp. Nothing killed and devoured her. Nope. Ha. Ha ha. Haaaa.
*hides behind Seven*
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Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 01:00 am (UTC)*Ponders weather to keep using rifle or to use two pistols*
-Anon Cami
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Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 11:06 am (UTC)*Ponders weather to keep using rifle or to man a machine gun*
-Anon Cami
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Date: Monday, December 14th, 2015 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 17th, 2015 04:20 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 07:43 am (UTC)I like that the descendants have a link to the Mindcrackers through Iirkolav and Mokdal. And now Nessy knows her ancestor's name. This is such a good story and I love it so much!
(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2015 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 11th, 2015 07:42 am (UTC)-TLL
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Date: Friday, December 11th, 2015 03:08 am (UTC)