Maqi.
Three beefy won wearing clean, shaggy beast hides that had a sweet scent to them escorted a man adorned in a fine robe of darkness.
Perhaps the word 'escort' gave the impression that the man in the robe was being given a graceful courtesy, but this was far from the truth. The won around him, while pretty and blissfully underdressed by normal standards, showed not even a lick of respectful regard to the man.
Their only desire was to rip him to shreds should he make any movent they deed out of line.
The man didn't mind the hostility.
He figured the won escorting him had grown even more wary of him since he hadn't featured the miniature, glowing jewel above his head or the constantly squirming, star-
shaped shadow under his feet half an hour ago.
He grinned mildly.
Skullius was escorted into a massive hall.
It too featured a wide variety of won, so not as buff as the ones escorting him, but so even more visually appealing, all lining the far ends of the wall while exuding controlled pressures at the Incandescent Stage.
The hall was magnificent.
Skullius could have sworn it was made of a... classier type of mud, one so smooth and polished that it might have been glass. It adopted a dark chocolate brown and white colour in artistic swirls and bold lines.
The hall had three layers, or perhaps platforms; the first, where the roughly forty female Incandescent Stagers were stationed, another, making up the other half of the hall, where sixteen more powerful experts were standing while glaring at Skullius, and the topmost, occupying a third of the floor, where a great... bowl was placed.
In this bowl, was a dwarfish, fat tree, not dissimilar to a baobab, and a large man was sitting in front of it.
The First Horn.
Unlike everyone else, he rely looked at Skullius with indifference.
The won escorting Skullius pushed him to kneel right before the elevated second platform, but he chose to sit in a lotus position instead, a small smile on his face. They had been about to harass him into showing the First Horn his much-deserved respect when a voice stopped them.
"Leave him."
The First Horn's voice was mighty.
Even Skullius had to do admit, it rattled his flesh and bones.
'He certainly matches the standards of a First Horn. I'm impressed. He wouldn't lose to that old bastard from back then in a contest of presence,' he thought.
The First Horn appraised Skullius for a full minute before speaking again. He paid a high degree of attention to the glow above his head and the unfathomable darkness below his -crossed legs.
"I heard you were desperate to have an audience with . So desperate in fact, that you killed so of my n guarding the coast," he said.
Skullius smiled.
"Well, one must attract attention sohow. You wound up giving in and placing on a waiting list, right?" he said.
The First Horn had to raise his hand up to put his devoted guards at ease. They were deeply disgruntled by Skullius' tone.
Skullius had felt the sharp rise in the pressure from these experts.
If they had been sent to Opungale instead of that ordinary band of riffraff that accompanied the Ode, things might have turned out very badly for the Sif.
"Can you give reason enough to spare you when you casually strolled into my land while having turned my son into a vegetable. I hear he won't recover for a while," the First Horn said without the slightest hints of emotion. "Is there anything you can say to soothe my grief?"
Skullius laughed aloud, garnering another sharp burst of killing intent.
"Oh, First Horn, I know no one here takes kindly to a genuine loss. I believe that old hag told you, didn't she? Your son challenged to KUTHMUK and lost even with her help. None of you here have the right to judge because of that, if you value tradition, that is. I reckon you must be feeling a twinge of joy that that brat was put in his place for once. You can thank when he grows out of his arrogance and actually tries to reach the heights an Ode is ant to reach," he said.
The First Horn retained a stone-like indifference while gesturing for his guards to relax once again.
"Umbett was right, it seems," he said. "Are you really Fulgardt?"
Skullius' smile disappeared and he adopted a dark, stern visage.
"I am not Fulgardt. I am his echo, Festos Dawn. I share his belief, I share his powers and I share a smidgeon of the sa drive he had," he said firmly. "I know there's more than just bad blood between you and m-... Fulgardt, but rest assured. I am not about to go on a murder campaign, recruiting and destroying. No. I am not even interested in Aigas."
The First Horn showed hints of emotion for the first ti. He squinted his eyes.
"Then what it is that you want?" he asked.
Skullius wore a small smile.
"First, I would like my two companions to be freed. I believe we were separated as a condition for eting you," he said before once again turning serious. "Second, I only desire to
et the one who stands above all, The Wanderer Who Seeds."
The First Horn rose from his seat and took a few steps forward.
"Fulgardt, according to legends, said the sa thing to our forefathers before he descended into madness. We rejected him when he said he only wanted to make Maqi greater by enlightening our ignorant minds to our true place in the world," he said.
Skullius frowned.
"I know what I- he said."
"He said, by using Maqi's strength, his goal would be achieved without much bloodshed and suffering and implored us to join him for the greater good."
"I know all that!"
"He said there were no gods, no Deities, no one above This Wanderer and only after accepting him would we all find salvation."
"THAT IS THE TRUTH!"
The First Horn had reached Skullius by now, great, rough blue flas burning around him while the Hybrid Luman had beco so incensed that his whole figure was devoured in darkness save for his blank, luminous eyes.
The pressure the two expelled turned the hall into a domain where light and darkness nearly
achieved a perfect harmony.
Skullius took a deep breath to relax.
"As I said, I don't care if you don't wish to join . I am simply looking for those interested in embarking on this journey with . A voyager like would much prefer to travel with powerful n full of ambition. That is why I ca here. The worlds outside our own aren't all fragile and constrained. The void has a great many horrors that even Deities fear to get close to. I can't handle it all alone," he said.
"I don't need you to believe my truth right now. I am not recruiting believers, after all. This is
a transaction. I will give you sothing in return. Sothing for every citizen of Maqi if you
so wish as well."
The First Horn frowned.
"What could be possibly give us when you have just admitted that you aren't strong enough to even journey towards your own ambition?" he asked.
Skullius scoffed.
"For soone who claims to know of Fulgardt's legends, you truly lack a lot of important
details," he said. "Did you never wonder why my- Fulgardt's Chosen had such unbreakable bodies? You all had to resort to tying their souls around those of others to kill them. Fulgardt granted his Chosen the gift of nigh invulnerability. He granted them their wildest desires. That was the basis of their loyalty. I, Fulgardt's echo can grant you all what you desire. All in due ti of course."
A cunning light sparkled in Skullius' eye. Before, he had questioned the veracity of this when he read the plaques Fulgardt left behind, but now that he was 'enlightened', he knew it was very much possible. All he needed, was for his affinity with both [Just Light] and [Evil Darkness] to rise to its highest - to S.
Only then would he beco able to grant the wildest of wishes, but only to those he deed
fit.
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