Scales - The Aftermath

Written by Tim D. Tuesday, 10 April 2012 20:58

This story follows the events at the last Entre mois as a direct result of the choices made by the Champions of Rosehaven when they valiantly slew the gargantuan child of the Empress of Scale, which remanifested upon the veil of the Zakiri and unleashed destruction upon them, which they were forbidden by taboo and Imperial Edict to defend against.

Within the depths of the most recent, flame-scorched crater, a single figure stirred as the sun began to crest the horizon of the Scaled Veil of what had one day been known as Rosehaven.  The scent of blood and death lay in a greater pall over the area than even the deadly fires which had swept over the four Scaled races there.  There were few bodies, most of those who had dwelled here only a few nights past were dead,their bodies and spirits alike consumed by the ill tempered Get of the Empress of Scale as it unleashed its wrath upon its cousins.

In Ome’Chicuacen emerged from the crater, his form again compressed to a size that the other races of scale would not find overbearing. One of the vyperyn survivors did not flee at his approach, though the fluttering of their hood and the rapid nictitations of their eyes showed how close they were to panic at his presence and his approach.  Both he and his mother’s other child had assumed their largest size during the battle and even some of the smaller and slower drakes were crushed beneath them.

The vyperyn raised itself high as it was able and offered its throat for the killing, as was proper, despite its obvious terror. He hissed his curt dismissal of the offer of lifeblood and surveyed the remnants of the most recent Grand Experiment. Though his eyes were sharp enough to spot prey two miles away on a night with no moon, he could see fewer than two dozen survivors of the almost a thousand which were supposed to have lived here, to say nothing of the three to six thousand deceased slaves that the “Legyndary Rabbits” had killed by releasing the most violent and unstableof his mother’s children.

So much had changed since yesterday. Since more than 40,000 full cycles had passed. Since in only the second time in the long history of the Empire a child of the Empress had been killed. Since instead of dozens ofthe Empress’ Children to oversee the Prime there were fewer than three. Yesterday there had been four. He looked upon his hands at the blood of his mother’s other child and once again wished it had not been necessary.

He deigned to pay attention once more to the vyperyn and noticed the fire blackened markings upon its hood and face.  “You are the Master of the River’s Mouth or his living successor?” he asked softly of the vyperyn, “I fear the Empress will have much to say about the state of her Empire in this time. I will require you to open the dam and allow the River to draw me back to my proper time”.

There was a long pause as the vyperyn struggled for words.

“That will not be possible, Profane One, Second Sixth, Born to Speak Truths Most Feared. The River of Time has escaped us.  When you journeyed here, something came through with you. A Darkness the likes of which I have only heard in whispers, perhaps some aspect of the Ill-omened Hydrus.  While you battled your brother,it drew the River of Time from the Great Breach into itself and phased away.”

The vyperyn gestured to the toppled and crushed buildings,the smashed dam, and the field of crystals which shattered at the sound of his mother’s child’s death scream. “This devastation could easily be fixed with your power alone, Great One, but the loss of the River … that is something from which we cannot recover. We must wait for the Empire to reach out to us andthen we can avenge ourselves upon those … Rabbits.”

Ome’Chicuacen had learned at an early age that he could think further and deeper in the time of three breaths than most would in as many full cycles.  His decision took only two breaths. “No, we shall not avenge ourselves upon Rabbits. I shall go and treat with them. For they cannot be Rabbits if they are worthy of our vengeance and I fear that our remaining strength is not enough to save this world without them. I have discerned the heart of the Hydrus, and know now how and why are people are no more. Go forth to those across the ocean and bring them forth,for it is here that all will be decided. Here the Hydrus will seek to complete its curse.”

The vyperyn inhaled with its one right lung, as if to speak but was forstalled by the choking gaze of Twelfth Born of the Empress.

“I know your thoughts and protests. There are but hundreds of us left from our True Time, perhaps a thousand at most. Poison your bias against the rabbits and we may still save the world upon which both we and my Mother were brought forth. Delay and you jeopardize not only what little life you have, but the chance of life for all. I have spoken. Go”. With a wave of his hand he created a Twist which, though it would kill the vyperyn, the vyperyn’s spirit would be able to remanifest in the nearby jungle which his folk had created near the desert where the Rabbits trapped the First Singers in glass.

Turning away from the devastation, he inhaled his rarely used third lung and intoned a specific Chord, with his other lung, he intoned aName. “Olam”.  A weapon appeared in his grasp, formed of alabaster and living golden oak, its stone blade glimmering with razored edges of mithril and diamond. With a well-practiced cut, he opened a Way into the Pathway of White Guardian and set forth to plan with the last remaining of his childhood advisors and one of the few entities older than his mother, the Empress of Scale. “Olam, wise counselor, I require your knowledge of the last 30,000 cycles.

Tell me of the young races, of Mythir, of Brithrigale, of Njal”.