After the man had left, the cats shuffled back into the room. They were t with the sight of their leader sitting on his pillow like a statue, lost in thought. They knew better than to bother him when he was in that state. So, everyone just went to lie down in their favourite spots on the Persian carpet, resisting the urge to ask all the burning questions.
Around thirty minutes later, Q’shar finally loudly exhaled, announcing the end of his pondering, and started to make himself more comfortable on his pillow.
Once he was done, one of the younger cats imdiately asked a question. “So, did he take the deal?”
He was t with raised eyebrows as he realised his mistake.
“I apologize. If one of the elders would like to start.” His voice beca quieter and subdued as he spoke, ending in barely a squeak.
“Apologies accepted, young one, but mind your manners in the future. And yes, he did,” announced the Maine Coon.
“That quickly?” asked another cat, surprised.
“Yes, I would be surprised if he tried to negotiate at all. Wizards rarely care about politics. They usually delegate them, and Samuel is no different in this case.”
“But is it wise? While his strength may be formidable, from what I heard, his family has enemies, and his enemies will beco ours once the deal becos public knowledge,” asked one of the older cats, tilting his head.
“Any business worth doing cos with risks, and this ti, I would say it was worth it.” Q’shar’s eyes lost a bit of focus, lost in a mory for a second. “Most of you probably don’t rember his father. I was the one dealing with him after Hyas retired and still rember seeing him for the first ti. Do you know what he was? In what form did he spend the last 500 years out of his 1300? Take a guess.”
“I heard that he sacrificed his body. Was he a ghost?”
Q’Shar just smiled, “Nope.”
“A zombie or a lich?”
“Not even close. All that was left of the man was his head, sitting in a special container. Preserved by a mixture of magic and technology.”
“What?” Asked a couple of the listeners.
The Maine Coon nodded his head knowingly. “That image is hard to reconcile with the infamous mage and the terror from the stories. He lost much of his power, but still, if you could feel his presence…” Q’Shar paused for a second, smiling to himself. “When I was younger and began taking over deals with the Alhazred family, we ran into an issue with one of the noble clans. They wanted to pressure us to join the Fruntarii branch associated with them. The Wealch family, if my mory serves right, just changed heads to one much younger and ambitious. He thought that the legends about our backers were just that, legends.”
“The bloodless massacre,” one of the older cats whispered, realising where it was going.
“Yes, we asked the Alhazred family for help, arguing that another family would control the information they received. That, of course, was out of the question, so they did ‘help’. One night, the Wealch family just disappeared, all but the previous patriarch. He returned ho to an empty house, no blood, no signs of battle. The man went crazy after, so say, with the further help of the Alhazred family. He was left alive, slowly losing his sanity as a warning to all the rest. A fully realized abyssal mage is a powerful ally.”
“But still, are we sure this Abyss won’t be turned against us?” asked one of the younger orange cats.
“Why the worry? You never were this cautious.” Q’Shar asked from his pillow, looking at the speaker from behind half-closed lids with a bit of amusent on his face. “Does he unnerve you?”
“Well, not that, it’s like, I don’t know, like… yes, he does,” The cat finally confird.
“Yes. Alhazred's presence takes getting used to, but it becos easier with ti.”
“If we want to bet on the Abyss, are there no others with better reputations?” Asked another from the audience.
The Maine Coon just smiled. “The thing is, there are no others.”
The cat’s eyebrows shot up at the response. “There has to be. There are many practitioners of diff-”
“There is no other.” Q’Shar interrupted. “Do you know what the Abyss or Void even is? Why is it so feared?”
“Well, not exactly.” The speaker now realized that they were discussing it, without actually knowing what they were talking about. It seed like everyone assud it was a mystery of so sort, one that shouldn't be explained.
“No one exactly does. Even I, after all those years of dealing with the Alhazreds, don’t know. But I do understand that it is the antithesis of sense, the un-existence of rules. They call it the well of nightmares, the hollow sea, the thirsting madness, and so on. There are many nas, but there is one truth that everyone agrees on.” The cat lowered his voice. “If you interact with it, you will lose your mind sooner or later.”
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“Unless you are from that family? Is it their bloodline?”
“No. It’s a ritual. They go through a ceremony of sorts. No one knows what it entails, but once perford, the mbers of the Alhazred clan lose the ability to feel fear.”
Everyone was clearly expecting sothing much more impressive, as they exchanged glances with questions and confusion etched on their faces.
“That doesn’t sound complicated. There are people without the ability to feel emotions on Earth. We can find them if needed.”
“No, not like that.” Q’Shar sighed in resignation. “You have to study more.”
He shifted in his seat, straightening up a bit to be heard better.
“Any living being is composed of three things: body, mind, and soul, all three deeply intertwined, all influencing one another. The body is the biological component of your existence, the least complicated one. Then there is the mind, a much more ethereal composition of your experiences and inborn preferences that make you, you. And then there is the soul. Not much is known about it, but it is a part of existence given to you by the very universe. It is also believed to be the source of free will.”
Q’Shar checked if everyone was listening. They were, without a sound.
“The fears that you are talking about with people that don’t feel emotions originate from the body, a chemical reaction that can be easily blocked. A natural response of the flesh, easy to suppress. One layer deeper are the fears coming from the mind. Those are the fears that are gained during your lifeti, such as fear of darkness, fear of being alone, or maybe fear of cars if you were in an accident. Those are deeper and tougher to deal with, but still can be suppressed.”
Q’Shar paused, looking around the room at everyone. Even the old priestess, who had sohow made her way into the room during the story, was attentively listening.
“But few know of the fears that co from within the soul. Not much is known about them, but one such fear is the fear of death that every living being possesses. You can learn to live with it, ignore it, or accept it, but it will always be there. Another one, and as so say, the greatest fear of all, is the fear of the unknown. Fear that keeps you from pursuing things you were not ant to see, that you can’t comprehend. It is the feeling you get when thinking about the infinite void of the universe. It is that fear speaking, warning you not to pursue things you were not ant to comprehend. What the Alhazred ritual does is remove the very concept of fear from their existence, even from their soul. That is why they can interact with the Abyss with relatively few side effects. Even when seeing sothing so incomprehensible, they can study it as long as their body and mind can endure. And that is a massive advantage for a wizard.”
“Can’t the ritual be reproduced?”
“Many tried, no one succeeded. Interacting with a soul is tough already. Removing parts of it will cause your entire being to collapse.”
“Okay, it all sounds great,” an older cat spoke, his voice loud and strong, “but you did not say ‘interact with the abyss without side effects,’ you said ‘withrelatively few.’”
“Well, knowledge like that has its burden. This is why many Alhazreds, according to history, were a little bit mad. Nothing substantial, usually a bit of obsession here, a disregard for human life there. But the family has a set of rules followed by its mbers, so our partner shouldn’t do anything too crazy.”
So cats in the audience groaned. “That doesn't sound convincing.”
“There is sothing more that pushed for that deal. His father had a sense of madness about him. But Samuel doesn’t. I can’t put my claw on it. Maybe it is because he is relatively young, but he seems to be taking in the sight of the void surprisingly well, even for an Alhazred. His eyes have the presence of his god in them, like all clerics do, but aside from that, the madness is not there. It’s a bit weird…” The cat paused, mulling over his words, “Well, nothing more to it. We will honor the deal and try to secure as many resources as we can for what’s to co. That’s all. Now stop lying around and get to work.”
The cats went about their own business, leaving Q’Shar alone with one more cat. It was an old orange cat with bite marks on its ear and a couple of scars on its face.
“Are you sure about that move? ” He asked once they were alone.
“Oh? ‘Hori the scar giver’ is getting cold paws?” Q’Shar asked, clearly amused.
The cat looked at him flatly. “You know it’s never that easy.”
“It hopefully will be.”
“The things abyssal mages are capable of can put us against a lot of people, if not a whole world. What if he decides to contact Yith like his father? That can put a whole species on the road to extinction.”
“Hopefully, he will not be that stupid.”
“That's not much of an assurance.” Reminded Hori, gazing at his friend with raised eyebrows.
“Well, it is all the assurance we have.”
They both locked eyes for a second. Finally, Hori looked away. “Fine, so what’s the actual plan?”
“What do you an?”
“Don’t sell that bullshit about securing resources. You wouldn't tie us to soone out of nowhere just for that. So what's the plan?"
Q’Shar smiled. His old friend really knew him well. “Well, do you know the two main powers in Fruntarrii right now?”
“The information network and the auction and market houses. I might not be much of a negotiator, but I’m not stupid.”
“Right. But there once was a third one, the exorcists, created right after the war. Later, the church disbanded them during the age of the Inquisition. The remaining two have old, already established connections that are hard to move. But if we can make a move to recreate the third one…”
The orange cat straightened up, realising what his friend's plan was. “And then take control of the network. You want to join the council as a third party?”
“Maybe.”
“You want to add to the coming chaos? I think the Alhazreds are rubbing off on you.”
“This universe supposedly erged from the primordial chaos, and so shall we. This should be fun.”
“They definitely rubbed off on you.” Hori groaned.
Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel※fire
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