The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into On The Path Again

 The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into On The Path Again

     Everyone has been transported back aboard the Krang and is en route back across the Divide to search for the remaining Honored Matre ships. She had wanted to lure them across the Divide deal with them, then wait for the Praetor following them to come to her. The advent of acquiring the Krang, linking to it, has changed the entire landscape of what she can do, at least in dealing with the lesser enemies anyway.

     "Set course for Silistra, we will start from there and see if anyone has seen or heard of where the Grand Matre's may have either gone to ground, or are congregating."

     "Course set, engines coming online." 

     "Set long-range scanners as we travel, maybe we will get lucky and cross paths before we get too far along."

     "Long-range scanners engaged. Anything else, Goddess?"

     "Engage instructions to begin opening the other towers. We need to start moving people over to them once they are opened. We will start needing the space, I do not want everyone holed up in this one tower when we literally have thousands of them to use."

     "Understood, beginning instructions to open towers for occupation."

     About a day later, Iriisii is woken by Rigmor.

     "Wake up! Please, wake up, you are having a nightmare!"

     "What..! What happened, what is going on?"

     "That must have been a doozy to have you disoriented like this. Do you remember anything?"

     "I was on a world, different from any other we have been to. It was almost like a warning or a premonition."

     "Tell me about it, what was the world like?"

     "Populated, not heavy but more on a level with Nirn. To the north, there was an ice wall. It extended across the entire country, over a mile high. There was a gate at the bottom, heavy, solid, it went through to the other side. I sensed solid gate walls every so often. Whatever it was made to protect against or to keep out, they obviously thought they needed extreme measures. 

     There were camps, structures, buildings every so often along the top, all the way from end to end, although most were either uninhabited or in dismal disrepair. Like they have not been used in a very long time. But I felt stirrings beyond the wall, very faint, but something beginning to stir."

    "Was there anything else?"

    "Yes, there was, this is so strange, across the oceans to the east and west was an almost solid wall of shadow. I could not tell how deep it went, but something lived inside, how it came to be, I could not tell."

    "What about the other side? Was there any land, any people?"

    "Yes, it was drier there, more like grassland, with some deserts, far to the western edge, were mountains like I have never seen. So tall, the air around the peaks, so thin you almost could not breathe. There were only a few passes across and they ended in cliffs. Deep down under the mountains, I sensed life, but slow."

    "Slow? How was it slow?"

    "Its thoughts were slow, deliberate. They did not move about from one thing to another quickly like human thoughts do. I do not know to what those thoughts belonged, I could not tell. But among the humans, there was trouble. Strife, was abundant, battles being fought amongst themselves. I kept getting the feeling they should be coming together to fight something growing beyond the ice wall. But also they needed to be wary of the shadow wall over the waters.

    What it all means I do not know. I do not even know where it is, in what Realm, what Creation. Just that it will play a part in our future."

    "With that much, we can send the word out to our allies, see if any of them know of such a world. At the very least, we will know where we do not have to go looking. I need to check in on the young ones."

    "Please do not go. Stay a while with me."

    "Shhh, I need to go, but Byrsael wants to be with you. I think maybe she is having visions of her homeland and wants to talk to you about them."

    "Ok, tell her to come in, I have missed her as well. Damn all these responsibilities, taking me away from all of you!"

    "I know, but if it were not you, who would it be? What would all of our lives be like if not for what you have done so far? You have done much to be proud of, and much more awaits. Know that we stand with you, wherever, whenever, you need us."

    "Thank you." Even as Iriisii grabs hold of Rigmor and throws everything inside her into that kiss.

    "Damn, I wish I could stay, but it just is not to be. Talk to Byrsael, see what is troubling her. Then spend some time with her, just the two of you. Both of you need it, who knows when you will get another opportunity like this."

     Rigmor moves to the door turns, and blows Iriisii a kiss from her fingertips, as she slips out. Iriisii leans back into the pillows and moans as her need for her mates rises. Then Byrsael slips in, looks at Iriisii, who sits up to greet her. The blanket carelessly falls to her waist as Byrsael starts to slip back out the door.

     Iriisii lifts a hand toward Byrsael and says, "wait, please do not go. I need you to stay with me awhile."

     "You do?"

     "Yes, I do. Please?"

     "Are you?", pointing to the part of her covered by the blanket.

     "Do you want me to be?"

     Byrsael scared to say anything, just nods her head.

     "Then come here and find out."

     Byrsael slips out of her own clothes as she approaches Iriisii, who has pulled back the blanket to give Byrsael a place to crawl under. She slips in next to Iriisii, who pulls the blanket back up and over Byrsael.

     "I do not want you to get chilled by the air." 

     Then Iriisii feels Byrsael's hands gently gliding along her skin, absorbing the bed heat from her. Her hands keep moving, then finding something to fill them, Byrsael gently squeezes, eliciting a groan from Iriisii, "by the 'Mother', please do not stop there."

     Hours later, both thoroughly sated, Byrsael laying half on top, half across Iriisii, head cradled on her shoulder. Both feel a sense of peace, of contentment, that both have missed for some time.

     "There was something you wanted to talk to me about? If you would rather wait, I am more than willing to just lay here and hold you for a while longer."

     "Mmmm, I would so love that, but the feeling I have will not go away, no matter how long I lay in your arms."

     "Then let me hold you while we talk, that way we take care of both."

     "Ever since I killed the Balrog, I have been able to sense things, not clearly, not with any urgency, but just small bits of things."

     "You are growing in power then, for that is where it begins and slowly strengthens as time and use of it goes on. Tell me what you can of what you sense, just let it flow from you, do not try to understand it. We will look at it that way later. For now, just let it come to us as it wills."

     "I do not know where I am in the feelings, but I am somewhere near home."

     "You mean Middle Nirn?"

     "Yes."

     "Go on."

     "It is far in a mountain range, one my people do not know of, possibly in the far south. There are captives there, why they are there, what they are doing, I do not know. They do not feel threatened, maybe they are mining or something like that."

     "Excavating?"

     "Maybe, some I think yes, others mining. I do not know what they are looking for, they simply dig into the rock, deeper and deeper."

     "Ok, tell me more."

     "Outside the mountain, something waits, sometimes in the skies, sometimes sitting on the nearby peaks, watching and waiting."

     "What is waiting, do you know?"

     "In the 'War of the One Ring', the leader of the Nazghul, had a mount, like unto a dragon, but not a dragon. This feels different, similar but not the same. This one feels 'wrong' somehow. I mean, dragons, even those who are not friends to us, feel one way and this one feels different."

     "Can you share the feeling with me, let me see what I can sense of it."

     Byrsael opens up her senses, letting everything about it just flow unrestrained into Iriisii. Iriisii feels drawn to this 'not dragon', across time and space, drawn to Middle Nirn. She watches as she flies toward the south. Looking at places from the air, she has only previously heard stories about.

     She sees the broken 'Gates of Mordor' thrown down upon the destruction of the 'One Ring' within Mt Doom, which she sees and then flies beyond. She keeps going further and further south until she sees another range of mountains rising up into the distance. Littering the ground are huge skeletons, winged skeletons. As she extends her own senses to them, they do not feel like the bones of Dragons that she has known.

     These feel 'darker', more primal, but what are they, she sees some traces of a red crystal embedded in the bones. This is where the 'primal' feeling is coming from. She does not wish to allow her senses to get too close to those crystals, something about them hints at a different kind of life. She still keeps flying onward, up toward the peaks of these towering mountains.

     The winds are cold and crisp, clean and dry. There up on one of the peaks is what draws her. A dragon, yes, but a dragon,  like none she has known. She feels the presence of the red crystals in its bones, underneath its flesh. For now, at least, it either does not sense her or it does not care. Finally, even though it does not look toward her, it does speak. It speaks in a voice of nigh-infinite age, deep and strong.

     "I have awaited you, ever since I first felt your presence on the winds that cross the mighty gulfs of space and infinity. I knew that one day you would come seeking me, and so I have waited."

     "You share with those I know as dragons, yet you are different."

     "As you are different from those who call themselves 'Gods'."

     "Am I that different?"

     "Indeed you are. You bear the weight of responsibility, far greater than any who have come before. But you do not bow before that weight, you bear it proudly as befits a Child of Infinity."

     "What is this 'Child of Infinity' that you speak so of."

     "Not 'what' as much as 'who'. Few across the vast expanses of what you call Creations and Dimensions are called to endure the experience of becoming the 'Child of Infinity', fewer still succeed. You are the only one that I have met and I have existed for longer than most."

     "You have not answered my question."

     "Perceptive of you. It is not my place to give you all the answers you seek, but to help in those times of deepest and darkest need."

     "Is that why I was drawn here through the aegis of one of my own?"

     "That I cannot say for I truly do not know why any are drawn. But I do know this, what happens within that mountain spells corruption most foul, that will only begin here on this world as it reaches out and takes one after another. I do not know how many will fall, what their eventual fate will be. But the Child of Infinity is the only one who can stop it.

     The bones you saw of my brothers and sisters as you came here on the winds are all that remains of us since the last one attempted to bring forth the 'Unnamed'. The one those in the north called Sauron wanted to attempt to bring him forth. He was stopped before he could even come here and make his attempt.

     Yet his master came, and even now works at clearing away the roots of the mountain, to find the place of entrance. There to breach it, enter in, and try to awaken that which sleeps within. He has no idea of what it is that he wants to wake, as most who foolishly try such find out to their demise."

     "How did you brothers and sisters die?"

     "Why does that matter, they are naught but bones now. They can do nothing to help now."

     "I ask because I am called the 'Mother of Dragons' by those of Dragonkind who know, respect, and have sworn fealty to me. I know that unless a Dragon's soul is devoured upon their death, they can be brought back. This is something I have done."

     "Really, after all the time their bones have lain there in the ground, it is possible they can return?"

     "The last that I have returned is 'Ekdiivgrah'."

     "That name, somewhere I know that name. Alas, it has been far too long, and time has stolen much of what I remembered."

     "He has promised to aid me in another matter, one he wishes to see done. When we complete that task, I will return with him, perhaps seeing him will cause Time to release his otherwise unyielding grasp on your memories."

     "Then I will wait here for your return. But may I ask, what task would one so old still wish to see done now, so far into the future from the time he lived in."

     "He wishes to help me destroy the Wamphyrie, permanently, beyond recall."

     "Then I take it that scourge has been brought back somehow from 'Death's Realm'?" 

     "Why do you say they came back from 'Death's Realm'?"                 

     "When back within the dark mists, they were created, and their pestilence spread like a plague. Many were the heroes who answered the 'Great Call' to end their threat. Of them, many fell and were conscripted into their ranks."

     "I know of that."

     "Yes, you have seen it for yourself and felt the loss of family. You have my sympathy for your loss."

     "He is now beyond the Final Gate. I was granted the privilege to escort him with the Aspect of Death, to see him to his reward in the Great Beyond."

     "Then there is far more to you than meets the eye of seeing. For you would be the first that I have heard of, not to mention having ever met, to have accomplished such a feat."

     "She speaks the truth."

     Iriisii turns and sees he whom she knows as 'Death'.

     "There is a great deal more to her than almost all others see. I too would like to know how the Wamphyrie came to escape 'Death's Realm'."

     "I take it then that they came to be there during a predecessor holding the 'mantle'?"

     "Yes, two before me."

     "There may be a way to learn if he knows anything or heard anything about it. If I can bring him and Ekdiivgrah together, it might jog his memory. But to do that I will need to bring back his brothers and sisters whose bones are residing in that field over there. Once I do this, we will have to leave immediately, as the ritual will alert him who is under the mountain to my presence. If it is who I think it is, I am not ready to face him. At least not without learning more about him." And turning to her new acquaintance, "and yes I have a place where all of you can reside, at least until you decide you wish to go elsewhere."

     "There are more than three hundred skeletons out there! Are you sure you have the room?"

     "Yes, I had already ordered the opening of the other towers of the Krang for any who need a place to stay while with me. There are over one thousand towers spaced around, with a single one being able to accommodate three hundred dragons with no problem."

     "I do not understand but I will accept your word for this. But who are you that you can command such resources."

     "She is the one spoken of in the hallowed 'Scrolls of Skelos'. She has met with him as he wrote new prophecies about her and her children. She has met the 'Last Prophet of the Tar Aiym' as he passed over their greatest weapon, the Tar Ayim Krang to her. She is Leader and Harbinger of the 'Gods of Eld', Battlemistress of the Celestial Army of the Balance. She is a Greater Goddess, who serves the 'Mother of the Cosmos', and is on the cusp of becoming an 'Elder One', the last step she requires, as she is the 'Chosen Daughter of the Mother', to take the 'Mother's Mantle' when she is ready to pass it on."

     "So the 'Mother' has finally chosen one to succeed her. I thought after all this time she would just keep going. For her to choose you, your worthiness is indeed above all others. May I respectfully ask how you intend to raise all of my brothers and sisters?"

     "One at a time is out of the question, it will have to be done all at once. Therefore I will ask the 'Mother' for 'Rebirth'."

     "You have asked for 'Rebirth' before?"

     "Yes, I have. Twice, and was successful, twice. But once this is done, we must leave right away. The ritual will draw the attention of one who is currently occupied beneath the mountain, and I do not wish to do battle with him now, under these circumstances. I need to know more about him, his strengths, weaknesses, history. He will not be a simple enemy to take down."

     "You are indeed right about that. I have been observing here for some time. I see captives taken in from time to time, but none come out except to gather more captives. Where they are getting them from, I have no idea, there are no habitations for quite some distance in all directions. This part of this range has a 'bad' reputation."

     "You don't say."

     "It goes back much farther than recent events. We can discuss it further at a later time, hide. A group of captives is being brought and as they have come to ignore me, they might not do the same for you."

     Iriisii looks around and sees a rock formation that will hide her while giving her a view of the entire area. Quickly she moves up the slanting face of the rock walls, avoiding any scree that she sees until she settles down into her viewing spot. Quickly casting a low-level camouflage spell that simply mimics the rock around her to hide her, she goes still, making no movement.

     The dragon close by looks on with an appreciation of her choices of hiding while he too settles down and his skin takes on the mottling pattern of the rocks around him. Iriisii noticing this takes note to ask him about it later as she hears the sounds of feet scrambling across the loose rock.

     "Come on you lazy louts, we are almost there. Soon enough you will be in your new homes so get a move on!" 

     She hears the crack of a whip and winces with the memory of whip strikes she suffered long ago. As the groans and moaning reach her ears, the sounds of rattling chains echo from the rocks. It is all that she can do to hold her position and not go charging down to the rescue. True she would have no difficulty taking these slavers apart, piece by piece, but she would draw attention, lose the chance to resurrect the dragons, and gain some intelligence about this place. Information first, then set about taking this place apart.

     They are all gathered near a particular rock formation. One of the captors places a hand on a protrusion of rock and mumbles some words. The outline of a door appears in the wall, as the captor reaches a hand into a shadowed portion and twists something inside. The rock door shifts and splits down the middle, opening up a dark shadowy entrance barely lit with torches inside and mounted in the walls.

     A tall figure dressed in filmy robes, sandals on his feet, a golden circlet covered by his flowing hair except for his brow, sitting snuggly on his head. He looks over the captives, sometimes forcing someone's head to look at him, sometimes squeezing the muscles of an arm or a shoulder.

     "The quality is going down, but these are still acceptable. You will need to hunt further afield and acquire better ones or you will take their place."

     As his head shifts, she sees his hair part and shows her the ears of an elf. What Elves are doing all the way down here at all, much less something involving these captives. She recognizes dwarves, men, goblins, and even a few orcs. Thank the mother no halflings, but then she sees something that changes everything for her. 

     A tall lithe figure, that she recognizes as an Ent, little more than an infant, the size of a young sapling. Chain cuffs on its arms, legs, and just below its face. Some of the captors standing, threatening with torches to keep it compliant. It looks around as if sensing more here than just those it has traveled with and the Elf.

     "Good, good, you managed to procure a young one. He will do nicely indeed. See to improving the quality of the others and things will go well for you. Take them inside, you know where they need to go."

     As the captors try to herd the Ent inside, she hears its cries of fear and pain, as one of the torches, sears its bark. This is too much, for her, for Darkstar, Shivista, even for 'Beast', and all agree she must intervene now.

     Iriisii stands, katana drawn and glowing fiercely with her rage. Her hair and face, crackling with power, aching to be unleashed.

     "STOP! Release them now! Or face my wrath and my blade!"

     The Elf looks at her with interest, then looks at the captors, "now why could you have not brought me someone like her." Turning back to Iriisii, "why don't you just save us all a lot of trouble, come down, and join these captives as we go down to meet my master."

     She feels the effect as he tries to use some form of magic within his voice to persuade her to do as he asks. She thinks about just frying him where he stands, but then she reconsiders. He is expecting her to do as he has asked. And he obviously has no idea of the power she commands.

     Darkstar agrees with her thought that she should lull him, by doing as he asks in order to get close to him. Then spring her own trap and take them down before they can raise the alarm. So she feigns resistance, allowing herself to be dragged down to the rock floor by the Elf's compulsion. She sends a tightly focused mental message back to the dragon still hidden among the rocks.

     'Stay there for now. I have a plan, watch for me to spring my trap.'

     The Ent looks at her and begins to calm down as if sensing she is far more than what she appears, and that she intends them no harm. As she nears the captive group, the Elf looks over her carefully.

     "Oh yes, indeed, she will do very well. The master will be quite pleased with her."

     He then turns to give new orders to the captors. Iriisii does not waste time, as she shrugs off the compulsion, and still holds her katana. Strikes with the flat of the blade against the side of the Elf's head, rendering him unconscious. She then had memorized the captors' positions, starts dropping them to the ground, minus their heads.

     The last few she had to adjust as they tried to turn and run, but they could not run fast enough to avoid her blade. She goes to each of the captives, using a single word to open their manacles. The orcs look at her with an undisguised appreciation of her battle skills and strip the dead captors of anything useful.

     "Tie up and gag that Elf, I will want to talk to him later." Two of the men jump to her command and truss him up like a pig for the slaughter. As the dragon comes down from the rock wall, the group cowers back in fear.

     "It is all right, he is a friend of mine. Aren't you?"

     "Indeed, my Lady. I have not seen such a display of martial prowess since I witnessed a group of  Rangers of Gondor, destroy a previous group of captors that crossed their path."

     "You have met some of the Rangers of Gondor?"

     "I watched from a distance as I had no idea how they would react to me."

     "I understand, I ran with a group of them some years ago, up in the Shire."

     "You were there when the acolyte of the Dark One was killed?"

     "I was, in fact, it was my blade that defeated him. I gave him over to the Shirefolk for judgment. Since they suffered most from his crimes."

     "I heard something of that, well done, my Lady. But what do you intend to do now, there is not enough time to get these to safety and bring my kin back."

     "If you will wait and watch, while I return your kin to you, I will arrange for all to come with me to safety. Then I can see to those who wish to return to their kin, any others who wish to stay with me, I will offer them sanctuary and protection. If you would watch the entrance and alert me if anyone else comes, I will begin the ritual after I arrange our escape."

     Using her crystal leaf link, she contacts Rigmor.

     "My love, have Reaper prepare room in a nearby tower for some refugees."

     "How many?"

     "About three hundred thirty dragons, six human men, three women, three orcs, five dwarves, and a juvenile Ent."

     "A what?"

     "Tell Byrsael, I am bringing an Ent child. She will know what we need for him. I must hurry, time is running short. We will need a large portal opened into the tower for the dragons, even so, it will take some minutes for that many to go through. Have some of the 'Dragon Legion' with Lambert and Eskell to be ready to come to me and protect these refugees while we get them to safety."

     "Go, do what you have to, I will have things ready on our side. Please be careful."

     "I will, my love, I will."