Path of Transcendence Omnibus II, page 18
*I don't know.* I have no answer to my questions. How the hell can I answer Dacbold's?
*He is touching on the truth of those Names.*
*** Refuge – Taereun ***
Return: Day 322
(Brand)
Thorrin's dining room is big, but with almost forty people here, it is getting a little crowded. With my small group staking out a quarter of the room the rest of them have even less space to cram into.
Tables are set up along the side of the dining room with a buffet. There are several huge pots of stew and soups, a couple of roasts, baskets of bread and bowls filled with butter, pitchers of beer, bottles of wine, and a half dozen pies. Considering how little many of the people in the room are eating, most of the food will probably go to waste.
I recognize most of the faces Thorrin summoned to this meeting, but I never learned all of their names. Dacbold and Farnulf are two of the others from the Seven Dvergar. That Seven Dvergar name was from a joke that someone made about an old Disney movie early on in The Great Fuck Over, and for some reason, it just stuck. Thorrin used to crack what I guess were supposed to be jokes about the name and The Lord of the Rings, but I never got them. The book had been banned for some reason before I was born. Apparently there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fantasy and science fiction books that were put on the ban lists, then the government banned the ban lists. I never got a tenth of the cracks and comments from the old fucks that were among the Damned.
There is a clear division in this room, my group and the rest of them, with Thorrin and Dacbold in the middle. That bitch Farnulf is on the other side, but he always hated me. He would fight like a madman when it was his neck on the chopping block, but he was always cold towards me because of my supposed brutality. Odd thing was that he and Dacbold were buddies back then, but I never got that feeling around Dacbold. Of course, in twelve years, if I heard Dacbold say a thousand words to me, that would be a lot, but Dacbold never really talked to anybody other than Farnulf. Now, it looks like Dacbold and Farnulf might not be so friendly anymore.
Most of the people in this room do not like me. There a few exceptions, but not many. It was mostly the ex-military people that I could sort of deal with among the Damned, and I only see a few of their faces here. Even with them, while most of them understood the necessity of my actions, they still did not like me, but they never tried to make me out to be some kind of psychotic criminal. At least, if they thought I was, they kept it to themselves.
Tomas and Kat were part of Thorrin's Hammers. We never really got along. Kat especially did not like me back during The Great Fuck Over, but Tomas just seemed to disapprove of my "brutal, barbarous" methods for getting shit done. Fuck them both. The only reason they were still alive by the time we reached the gate to Taereun was because of my brutality. The Damned would have been wiped out a half-dozen times at least, if not for me torturing information out of people or murdering a few dozen government officials in one ass-fuck kingdom or another. When they should have been thanking me for saving their sorry asses, they were condemning me for being a monster. Fuck them.
As the feeding and bullshitting goes on, groups of them leave the dining room, probably looking for someplace they can get away from the tension.
"Yo, ese. Been a long time. It thought you were dead. How is hanging?"
Pancho is one of the few among the Damned that is tolerable to deal with. I already knew him when Taereun was still a game. As long as you just ignore the way he goes on about some Mexican hero, named Pancho Villa, he is not a bad sort. I looked in some history books, and there was not jack or shit about any Mexican Revolution or Pancho Villa. If Thorrin did not vouch for the existence of both, I would have thought Pancho was just spewing bullshit.
I almost smile. "Pancho. So, you were lucky enough to survive."
Pancho laughs. "Maybe, I survived because I was unlucky."
There is a darkness in Pancho's eyes that was not there the last time I saw him, but I do not ask any questions. The middle of a room full of people is not the place to dig at old wounds.
"Then, you’re coming to Earth?"
"Yeah. I need to make sure of a few things. I have family that I have to check on." Pancho is still smiling, but his smile is filled with worry.
I stare at Pancho. "This isn't about seeing family and friends. We're going there to hunt down something that could destroy Earth, the Labyrinth, and Taereun. It's dangerous enough to worry a Dvergar so powerful that none of the Jotun Lords are even close to his match."
Pancho gets an introspective look in his eyes. "You sound like you know this Dvergar. Is he another of these supposed gods like The Nameless God?"
I frown. "The Nameless God is no god, and he has a name, Woden. They aren't gods. Gods are myths. They're False Names. Somehow, they have taken on aspects of a Name that gives them the Power associated with the Name. Compared to us they may as well be gods, but that doesn't make them omnipotent or omniscient, and there are limits on the Power they can use."
"Will this false name, Woden, interfere with us?"
My smile is colder than the depths of space. "If he does try, I have the means to make him pay for it."
Thorrin makes his way to the end of the room where I am and turns to face everyone else. "It's time. If everyone could take a seat. There are plenty of chairs along the walls. If there aren't enough, I have more in the room across the hall."
While people get settled, Thorrin seems to be watching three people in the far corner of the room. All three of them are wearing dark robes and have the hoods up. I noticed them earlier but did not pay them much attention. With the nervousness bordering on outright fear flowing off them in thick waves, they just stared at everyone else while their heads kept nodding up and down. I cannot be bothered with people like them. Anyone that is scared by just a room full of people is not worth my time.
"Alright. Thank you all for coming. You all, already, know that this has to with The Nameless God and retrieving something from Earth. I know some of you were not happy when I did not provide any details, but I did not have all the details. Boran Second Father, the ancestor of all the Dvergar currently living, was the one who gave me the task of finding those among the Damned that would be beneficial to this mission, but he did not give me all the details. The man Boran placed in charge of this mission is now here."
Thorrin pauses and looks at me. "Even if you never met Talon, all of you at least knew of him. This is Brand. He was once Talon. I'll leave it to him to explain the mission and answer the questions that I could not."
As I stand up, I feel the eyes of everyone boring into me. They probably mean to pressure me with the weight of their stares. Their stares are light. They have never stood in the center of the Gor'achen arena. They do not know what it feels like to have a million pairs of eyes hungrily latched onto you while hungering for your blood.
I do not show any expression on my face, but my eyes are cold. The majority of these people do not like me, but that does not matter. As long as they are usable and willing to be used, I will use them. On Earth, there were priests of Woden in that facility in North Dakota. I do not know what other threats might exist, but I have to assume I will need cannon fodder when I go after the drive unit.
"The creatures most of you think of as Dragons are not True Dragons. They are creatures that were created by the True Dragons as mounts and pets. The last of those True Dragons were exterminated in a war hundreds of thousands of years ago by the Dvergar."
"What are you talking about?"
"Where did you learn this?"
"That's bullshit. I never heard anything about it."
"Who. . ."
"Silence!" I let my braided Power flow though my voice.
The people gathered in the room stare at me in hostile shock and surprise, but at least, they shut up.
I look at Vili who is doing his part to personally eat all the food I thought would go to waste. "Vili, can you tell them about you Dvergar, Nidhoggr, and Yggdrasil."
After looking at me for a moment, Vili drinks a pitcher of beer in a single long chug. Putting down the empty pitcher and frowning, he looks at the rest of the room. "Brand speaks the truth. It was almost a million years ago in Taereun time that we fought the last battle. The Dragons were about as close to what passes for God in your little mud-hole of a world's monotheistic religions as you will hear tell of. It is quite possible that the influence of a Dragon on the prehuman races of your world is where your one true God mentality was born."
With Vili talking, even though I can see the incredulity, and in some cases, outright disbelief, no one voices their inane questions out of obstinacy.
"The Labyrinth of Yggr, as you call it, is Yggdrasil, the dimensional battle fortress of Nidhoggr. Nidhoggr died along with all the Dragons, and we Dvergar thought Yggdrasil was lost to the void between dimensions, what you sometimes call Limbo and other times call the Aether. Unfortunately, Yggdrasil was somehow found by Woden and Yggr.
"Yggdrasil has nine dimensional drives. Each and every one controls enough Power to rip apart any Amalgamate plane or realm. The way that Woden and the Jotun Lords are using those drives to create and manage the pocket planes inside of Yggdrasil has made Yggdrasil unstable. When the dimensional stresses destroy Yggdrasil, it will destroy this multiverse, including Taereun and your Earth."
Vili pauses for a few moments, but no one voices any questions or objections. Those assholes, who would immediately contest the same words coming from me, accept what Vili says without hesitation.
"Woden has hidden the main dimensional drives on your Earth. If you do not recover it, either Woden or the Jotun Lords will destroy Yggdrasil. Even if they do nothing else, Yggdrasil will still be destroyed in less than a hundred years. Since your Earth's solar system was dragged into Yggdrasil, the instability has been building and shows no sign of stopping.
"Boran Second Father has tasked Brand with recovering Yggdrasil's drive, and Thorrin has been tasked with helping him."
"Why send scum like him? Why don't you Dvergar do it yourselves?" The speaker is one of the assholes that hate me, but if I ever knew his name, I cannot remember it.
"Nidhoggr created the Dvergar. He knew how powerful we are, and he programmed the main drive to see us as threats. If we approach too closely, we will be destroyed by it."
After Vili does not say anything else for about thirty seconds, the asshole starts looking even more irate. "Why Brand? Why send scum like him?"
Vili shows a slight smirk. "You already know the answer. Brand is the strongest among you self-named Damned. Do you think the Second Father would rely on someone as weak as you? Brand may be pathetically weak, but compared to the rest of you, he is a bastion of strength. "
I control my urge to laugh. Vili is a complete asshole, but he knows how to hit them where it hurts. The asshole looks deflated and afraid. He does not seem to have the courage to rebut Vili. I wonder what Vili did to make the asshole so afraid of him.
"Any other inane questions?"
When no one else opens their mouth, Vili goes back to his one Dvergar assault on the food and beer.
I look at the people gathered in the room. Many of them will not make eye contact with me, but those same people are still projecting their dislike or hatred. If they do not have the balls to step up, fuck them.
"Finding Yggdrasil's main drive will probably not be easy. The drive could be anywhere on Earth. A year ago, it was in North Dakota, but I do not know if it is still there. Once we find it, we will have to secure it. There were priests of Woden guarding it the last time I saw it, and they were using iron wolves. The room that the drive was in had multiple layers of formations and sigils as defenses. No matter how we go about it, it will probably be an ugly fight.
"Earth will not be home. It will be hostile territory. Just like during The Great Fuck Over, you could die at any time. If you are looking at this as a chance to take care of personal business on Earth, I don't need or want you. My only priority is Yggdrasil's main drive. Once it has been secured, I don't care what any of you do. If you want to stay behind on Earth, go for it, but if you fuck up my mission over your personal shit, I'll kill you myself."
As I finish, Vili looks at me with a cold smile. On the other side of the room, Boran and Dacbold are not showing any expression, but Farnulf is staring at me with a hostile gleam in his eyes, but then, Farnulf has never liked me.
As for the rest of the Damned, their expressions and emotions span quite a range. Some are even more hostile, but those are the people that already hated me. The rest are somewhere between speculative and scared.
I do not say anything more and watch them as they think or discuss things in whispers. A number of them look at Thorrin and the other two Possessed Dvergar, but no one approaches them. There seems to be an air of wariness, and in some of the human Damned, there is clear distrust as they look at the three Dvergar.
Something must have happened after I was murdered. There was never this kind of distance between the Seven Dvergar and the rest of the Damned in the past. Or could it have always been there, but I never noticed? As long it does not get in the way of retrieving the main drive, I do not care one way or the other.
After a few minutes, one of the human Damned, I think he calls himself Dunlop, looks at me and opens his mouth. "If you were Talon, I saw your corpse. How are you alive? Where did you get that body? How did you get it?"
Even though I expected the questions, I frown. "This is my real Body, my Earth Body. The only reason I'm alive is because Boran Second Father intervened. I don't know what he did or how he did it."
There is very little change in the attitudes among them, except that a number of the people looking at me have disgust and what I think is pity mixed in with their other emotions. Why does being in my Earth Body make them look at me differently than when they assumed, my Body was just another Body I was possessing?
"If that is your real body why do you look so young? It's been almost thirty years and you can't be any more than your early thirties at the oldest." Even though I can vaguely recall her face, I do not know who this person is. I can feel her hatred and disgust as she glares at me, but that does not really mean anything. A lot of people hate me just because of the way I look.
"It's been less three years on Earth at the longest. The time differential from the game was the difference between the time-streams of Earth and Taereun. Earth might be in more or less the same time-stream as Taereun now that it's inside of Yggdrasil."
Again, several minutes pass while these people digest the idea of only a few years having passed on Earth.
"So, what are you looking for from us?" Dunlop is the first one to ask a question.
"I may know someone who can track down potential locations for the main drive, but I won't know until I talk to him. Preferably, I want people who have access to information or intelligence networks. It doesn't matter if they're government or informal resources. As long as, you can help track down where the drive might be, you'll be useful."
Frowning, Dunlop looks down at the floor before looking me in the eye. "I think I can help. I was a software developer on Earth. I specialized in security filtering software for internet traffic. There are some programs that we might be able to use to data mine internet traffic for keywords that could lead us to your drive."
I nod. "That's good. Anyone else?"
Others start voicing their opinions on what they can do to help. They all want to go to Earth, even the ones that hate me.
After the ones willing to go to Earth with me have finished speaking, Thorrin looks at the three huddled in the corner. "Brand needs some Airmancers. Three people who have the skills to do the job of an Airmancer would be nice."
As the three hooded Casters stare at Thorrin in wide-eyed horror, I feel the fear inside of them burning like a raging bonfire. The two shorter ones, one male and one female, scramble to hide behind the taller one.
"We don't want to go to Earth. We hate Earth." The taller one's jaw is quivering as he faces off against Thorrin.
"I'm not going to Earth, and you can't make me!" Coming from behind the tall man, the woman's voice has a whiny tone to it.
The second man, biological males might be a more accurate term for these ballless bitches, hides behind the taller one and shakes.
What the fuck is up with the three of them? I look inquiringly at Thorrin, but he ignores me and focuses on the cowardly trio.
Surprisingly, Dacbold gets up from the chair he is straddling and walks over to them. Even though he is slightly on the tallish side for a Dvergar, Dacbold has to look up to glare into the tall one's eyes. "Julious, what would Agun say if he saw you now?"
All three of the trembling cowards flinch and cower backward, but none of them replies. What is Agun's connection to these three?
"Well? What does that monument at The Massacre site say?"
The tall one looks away, refusing to meet Dacbold's eyes.
"Tell me!" Dacbold's voice is a not so quiet roar in this confined space.
"In memory of those who died so that others might live." All three of the shivering cowards are sniffling as Julious recites the inscription from the base of the monument.
"Would Agun have hesitated to go with Talon?"
As Julious shakes his head, the light reflects off tears on his cheeks. "No. To help Talon, Agun would have died."
"Agun died to save your lives, to save all our lives. He's Talon." Dacbold points at me.
Julious turns around and whispers with the other two bobbling cowards for a minute. The three of them make my skin crawl. They are just like the cowards on Earth that would never dare to fight back when they were bullied and go cry in the bathroom.
After they finish whatever the hell they are doing, the three sniveling cowards shuffle over. None of them raise their heads to meet my eyes. "After Ashir's Pass, Agun told us Talon was the only reason he was alive. He said he would give his life for Talon, but he's gone now. Are you really Talon?"
