Chapter 54- Speaking to Stone

Savage Land- City of the Sun, Capital of the Sun People, Date Unknown (Late Afternoon)

Zala Dane-             

She had spent the last couple of hours channeling the energy from the dagger fragments together into the two largest pieces, and then once the obsidian arrived, she carved and shaped them. Willing the obsidian and the lava stone to work together had been easier than Zala expected. When she was done a pair of rather gaudy earrings lay out before her.

“What are they?” Mic-la asked from over her shoulder.

"Earrings," Zala answered. She then dug out a steel sewing needle from her limited outsider supplies, before offering it to him and ordering him. "Heat this." While she waited and watched the junior priest conjuror a flame and get the needle red hot, Hor-naf returned. She asked the High Priest. “How many?”

"About ten, and a third of that from my own priests, who are preparing to challenge you. Also, we've needed to suppress Mal-gato's chosen twice already. You should just let us kill them." Hor-naf answered.

Zala looked over at the feathery headdress that she had earned fighting Mal-gato. Sparing people was not seen as kindness, but rather weakness among the peoples of the Savage Land. Yet something in the back of her head told her she needed them alive still.

"It's ready," Mic-la reported.

Zala quickly moved over and took the red-hot needle. She had pierced ears before coming here, but they had healed up and resealed over the years of not wearing anything in them. Thus she needed to re-pierce them. So with gritted teeth, she plunged the needle into the old hole. She left it there for a moment to ensure the flesh cauterized, before repeating it quickly to her other ear.

Once the hot needle was removed she released the breath she was holding. She motioned for Hor-naf to heal her. As he approached, she asked. "Heal it enough, but leave the holes."

He nodded and chanted a healing spell. As the spell worked, Zala could feel the burning and soreness leaving her ears. As the other High Priest worked she reached over and took the primitive earrings and removed their caps from the back. They were lighter than she expected, but she attributed that to the magical energy flowing through them.

Zala then motioned for him to stop, and once he did she put the earrings on. She heard something when she capped the first one. Like a sigh. But when she capped the second there was clearly a voice now in the back of her mind.

‘Hello?’ a gravelly voice asked her.

“Hello?” she asked the voice. The two men in the room frowned at her.

‘Oh thank goodness, when I felt my link to the dagger wither I feared the worst.’ It rumbled back to her.

“And you are?” Zala asked the voice. The two men’s frowns deepened.

‘Garokk, son of Tarokk, a warrior of Lord Jarzarin. A Free Lord of Muspelheim.’ The voice identified itself, before asking. 'Are you the new spokesman for people that live around me? And what happened to my dagger?'

“Your dagger was destroyed in a battle. I forged the remnants into earrings.” Zala answered him.

'That must be why your voice is clearer, I am closer to your mind.' This Garokk muttered.

Hor-naf was about to ask her something, so Zala pointed one of her hands at an earring, and another in the general direction of the massive statue in the heart of their temple. As she did she asked. “So you are a Fire Giant?”

‘I am, you must be the new spokesman, or rather spokeswoman. Most are not told that before speaking to me, they think me greater than I am.' Garokk explained.

Realization dawned on the two men in front of her when she fist-pumped, at being right about the being the Sun People were worshiping as a god. While the two men are filled with nervous energy, Zala calms herself to ask a question that has been bothering her. "You knew that I spoke the same language as the tribe to the far west how?"

‘My senses are not as limited as yours, I can cast them out to see and hear things, but mine can also be detected by the Atlaneans so I tend to keep them restricted to my dagger. This reduces their chances of locating me.’ Garokk answered.

"Also why do you call me a spokesperson? I am the new High Priest of the Sun. Well, Priestess. But we lead the people that live around you." Zala asked him.

‘You lead them?’ Garokk asked in surprise.

"Well, I will once we stabilize things. I have some trusted advisors, and some rebel priests want to take the role away from me. But tell me how can we help you? Some foreign magic users said that you were feeding from the Sun Stone that you're holding. Can't you just drain it to recover?" Zala asked a more tactical train of thought.

'I could at one point, but not anymore. I have been away from home and its heat for too long. I would need a more direct infusion of my homeland's energy to heal… well there is another way, but I wouldn't want to risk it.’ the giant answered her.

"What is it? Please, the mages were forced out of hiding and require our help. If we could get you moving it would stabilize the lands here." Zala pleaded to him, as she thought. ‘If we get him moving, he could be used to consolidate my rule of the region before we try to send him home.’

Garokk laughed, before commenting. 'I would aid you willingly if we could fulfill our duty to the mages. But you might want to temper your ambitions. Alright, I will tell you. If channeled and offered properly mortal souls can reignite me to life. But it must be quality souls, for the more you offer the more I may fall to demonhood. And if I do that I will be of aid to no one.'

“What do you mean, ‘fall to demon hood’?” Zala asked the Giant.

He sighed, before answering. ‘My homeland has two major races, the Fire Giants and the Fire Demons. But the truth is we are the same. Fire Demons are giants that have fallen into the addiction of eating mortal souls, the more we eat, the more feral we become. Till only the hunger remains. Like our grandsire Surtur.’

“What do you mean by quality?” Zala asked.

‘Spell casters are better for us, than regular humans. And none of the beast folk that will certainly drive me to fall, even if they can cast the energies of reality.’ The Giant explained.

“How?” She asked.

He sighed again, before starting with. 'This is foolish… Fine, you will need an earthen dagger, not metal. Cut the lungs, and carve a sigil into their chest, before plunging the blade into their heart. It must be done near me. Also, it must be performed by a spell caster, and it will sap some of their energy to do it. Open your mind to me and I will show you.'

Zala snapped at Mic-la, as she asked. “Is obsidian fine?”

‘That is fine.’ The giant agreed.

Mic-la now understood and pulled his own obsidian knife that he had, and handed it to her. Once she had a firm grip on it, she was about to ask what Garokk meant by letting him in. but then she felt a hammer overwhelm her mind, and her body acted without her consent. She slashed twice, before thrusting at Mic-la. A fiery trail hung in the air so she could see the pattern that she needed to carve into the offerings. Then the presence left her.

‘I am returning to myself now, and remember it is best performed near me.’ Garokk reminded her before leaving her completely.

Zala stashed the blade in her belt, and then quickly removed the earrings. Once she removed them, Zala chose to add them to her outsider stash pouch. When she looked away from her pouch Hor-naf and Mic-la were very eager to hear what had transpired.

“The giant’s name is Garokk, and he said if we kill priests or other blessed humans near him, we can revive him and receive his aid.” Zala reported.

“So we have new targets for our forces?” Hor-naf asked.

"No, we have a reason to kill rebellious priests and a crippled loser." Zala corrected.

 

 

England Sanctum –Preparation Chamber- 17-03-08 (23:00 local time)

Ancient One                  

As the Ancient One steped out of the portal, she is disappointed to only see a half dozen masters and a few other people ready and gathered in the staging area. As the portal behind her closed she took a deep breath.

Wong approached her, seemingly ever ready for a fight, and bowed to her while saying. "I apologize, but moving up the timetable proved too much for many of our masters. They have families, wives, sons and daughters to look after, and couldn't just walk away."

The Ancient One nodded as she sighed. She understood that she was probably the only member of the Order to understand the significance of what keeping a Founder alive really meant to them. Even if this Nath'aniel has said that he wanted to keep his distance and focus on himself.

She knew that at some point in the not-too-distant future. That he would save them from something. She didn't even need the Time Stone to know that, it's just what the Founders did. Once that happened, the other masters and disciples would understand what value he would bring to them, the Order, and their lives.

The doors burst open, Defender Rama and a handful of disciples followed him into the room. "What is this? Are we not even warning the Defender of their Sanctum anymore?" He walked to stand beside her and Wong before he added. "I thought the battle wouldn't be for another few hours. Why the sudden change of plans?"

“I have used the Eye. We made an error in our assumption, and have changed targets, but we must act now if we are to save the Founder.” The Ancient One answered.

“If he is one.” Disciple Mordo snidely said.

She snapped a look towards him, standing behind Rama. The Defender raised his hands to shield the young man before he added. "We didn't know that the Brotherhood had a light manipulator before you left, a man called Exodus."

The mention of a light manipulator made the Ancient One think about a young knight she met, before coming to Kamar-Taj. Instead, she mentally shook her head, before rebutting them. "Oh, can this mutant also detect the presence of time? Because that was the Founder’s only question for me when I requested to meet him again, that being if there was another Infinity Stone on Earth besides mine.”

This caused all of the gathered masters’ mouths to drop in surprise.

“He saw passed the Eye?” Wong muttered in surprise.

"Yes, he did." The Ancient One answered his rhetorical question. Then she added. "Not only did he see it, but he said he was surprised at how few of them were in the night's sky. Thus his worry of there being more on Earth, a worry I now share."

She gave them a moment to let that sink in, and was about to say something else when a portal opened nearby and Master Kaecilius and five disciples followed him through it.

“I thought you said you couldn’t make it?” Wong asked him once he was through and the portal closed behind him.

“No, when you change the time I said I ‘might not’ be able to make it.” Kaecilius corrected. He and his disciples then bowed to the Ancient One, before he added. “But our schedule cleared up and here we are, ready for battle.”

The Ancient One cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, and then she cast a simple cantrip to allow her voice to reach everyone in the large room. “Our target has changed. What we once thought was merely a disciple to a Sekhmet. After using the Eye of Agamotto, I have learned that said man is now the host of Hathor, Goddess of Fertility.”

“What does she want with the Lost Sanctum?” Kaecilius asked.

"The building nothing, she wants its owner, the Founder. She admitted to me that she desires to mother, or if nothing else be the nursemaid for the next generation of magi." The Ancient One explained. Yet she kept the woman's claims of him owning an ancient relic to herself.

“To battle a host will be costly.” Wong pointed out.

“That is why were instead go for the real threat. The Sun people will or have already started to offer human sacrifices to their Fire Giant.” She explained their target. After gauging everyone’s reaction she continued. “When it absorbs enough souls it will recover, but if it absorbs too many it will go on a rampage.’

“Worse yet the Sun people have emptied their camps and settlements, all of their warriors are gathered as a wall to protect their priests’ ritual. And with the Sun Stone in their capital, we cannot portal directly to their ritual site.”

Hearing about the numbers, Wong reached with his magic, and a spear flew off the wall and floated over to him. Then he announced. "I am ready."

The Ancient One pulled out her sling ring, but before opening the portal she wanted to give a few warnings first. “Do not think them just savages with clubs. Their priests have enchanted some of their weapons, and they have used alchemy on some of their warriors to make them bigger and stronger.” She then pulled her Japanese Yumi long bow to her, as well as a full hip quiver.

Kaecilius and his disciples all drew a weapon or two, as they waited for the portal to open.

                They heard the disciple running before she entered the room. "Ancient One, you were right, thermal energy and mystic energy are spiking at the City of the Sun. Also, we detected a mystic shadow near where the first meteor impacted. We think it might have been a ship."

Defender Rama held out his own hand and an arming sword flew off the wall to his open palm. He unsheathed the blade, before saying. “I am ready.”

“Once through the portal, those that can, will cast mobility or flight magic to bypass the bulk of their troops. Those that can’t, will hold the point so we have somewhere to fall back to and defend the wounded.” Wong advised as the Ancient One channeled power into her ring.

The Ancient One linked her mind to the image of the location that she wanted to go to before she started to wave her arms to cause the ring to open the portal. She stopped though when she heard the heavy steps coming from outside of the staging room.

In walked Rintrah and Touvok brother disciples of Riv’Vaanian descent. The two minotaurs stood armed and armored, with Rintrah holding a heavy smithing hammer and his brother Touvok a runed Danish axe.

"Our clan has a blood debt to the Founders. Their enemies are our enemies." The normally quiet blacksmith said. His equally quiet brother just grunted in agreement.

The Ancient One stretched out her arm more, causing the portal to also widen enough to allow the two large bullmen through. As they waited for the portal to open, Mordo drew his own sword and then asked. "Does it bother anyone that Hollywood and media get us so wrong in their products? None of us look old or are limited to wands or staves."

“Of course, the modern world has a hard time believing magic is even real let alone get us right.” Kaecilius said just as the portal opened.

He and his disciples were the first through. Followed by Wong and his colleagues, and then Rama and England's members, and then the minotaurs and the Ancient One last. Once through those that could begin casting spells to allow them to move and keep up. Only four disciples stayed near the now-closing portal.

"We are ready." The Ancient One said, before flying off into the night sky.