BECMI Chapter 155 – A Legacy to Endure

Regent of the Halls Himmelstern Karrackheim, most powerful of the dwarven lords of the North, and likely on the continent, blew a long breath into his bright red beard. It was still very short for a dwarf, but I’d actually worked on a spell to grow hair out, and if it had reduced effect on dwarves, I’d still endeared myself to him and his men by adding a dozen years of growth to beards and scalps seared by the nifloids.“This bin… hard news to wrap mein head around… und a fell price to pay for dur survival ov mein people,” he stated grimly. He eyed Prince Ukker and Revered Cruxin, and then, slowly, his eyes turned back to me. “Und in this matter ov dwarves, du are going to interfere,” he conjectured slowly, but his blue eyes gleamed hard.

“This isn’t a matter of dwarves, this is a matter of Immortals,” I corrected him, noting with approval that his accent in Iberian was still much less than most dwarves. “More directly, Immortals manipulating mortals like a mere game of chess or checkers, changing and altering as they deem right, without care for the wills and desires of mortals.

“The Khirifi were one such force of mortals, tasked to destroy the North and then bring down the Empire of Iberon. The very Immortals of Iberon were watching and not interfering as they were bound to the task. Only them using Soul Eaters bestirred some to even care about them and the carnage they were causing.

“I removed them.”

He nodded at me slowly, as that was widely-known now. It had changed the entire balance of power in the North.

“The beast-folk were a creation of the Immortal Nifl. Their purpose is to bedevil other races, cause chaos, wreak havoc, inflict carnage, and bring down destruction on all other races upon this world.

“In the time of Belle and I, they have succeeded marvelously. None wiped them out like we did in this era, not knowing what they could grow to. The world seethes with millions of them in their dark and hidden places, and a great number dwell as vicious and ferocious neighbors to our homelands.

“Our peoples have been fighting them for thousands of years. Nifl is very pleased at what Her creations have wrought, including raising other Immortals who have now sponsored their own stable forms.

“I am here to stop some of the machinations of those Immortals from occurring,” I said pointedly. “And that, Lord Regent, is why you have been brought here today.”

His face was calmer and more composed as he considered me, and the level at which I thought. “Bin something similar done with dur elves?” he asked slowly, looking back and forth between Brittabelle and I.

“Yes and no.” I reached over to touch Belle’s arm. “The elves exist on all continents of this world. No effort was made to truly save the elves of Darkmoor at all. Most of them perished in the Doom of Darkmoor.

“That includes basically all of the Ceruil. Belle here does not descend from any of the Ceruil, despite their great similarities. Their bloodlines converge only much farther back, in lands far from here where the fair elves arose long ago.

“My ancestors, on the other hand, were the Mealyn.” I removed my hand and clasped my palms together as I gazed at him. “They fled the Doom and the blight on the land and the sea by going deep into the caves of the Beast-folk, slaughtering all before them and going very, very deep indeed.

“There, another Immortal eventually found them, gave them direction and purpose, and so they became the Shadenelvari, the elves of shadows, dwelling deep under the world, even deeper than the dwarves of Rukheim. My ancestors changed to follow their Immortal, while elves came again from distant lands to the surface above over thousands of years, bringing with them Belle’s ancestors, who followed a far more traditional elven path.”

He actually blinked at me. “Du were born ov elves… who dwell He was incredulous at the very idea.

“Over ten miles underground, actually, in the great cavern called the Sternvult, where ceiling and floor are sky to one another.” I whipped out my arm, and the room around us fell away into illusion, Everyone about, including the quiet human King Antius, looked around in interest and wonder as I revealed my homeland to all.

They saw the great underground lake-sea, the mushroom forests, the farms, the settlements on the floor and ceiling, stalagmites not unlike those in the final Beast-Cave that extended for a mile between floor and ceiling, elves riding the great skinwings, and the sprawling great and elegant city of the shadow elves, home to tens of thousands of us, built around the great central temple to Gaebrel.

Even Belle was a bit astonished at this, especially the size of an elven city wrought in stone. There were far more shadenelves in that city than the population of her principality in Zanzyr, after all!

Prince Ukker and Revered Cruxin were as fascinated and dumbstruck as everyone else. They had no idea the shadenelves were anywhere near as strong as this. “How many ov dur people bin there, Lady Edge?” Prince Ukker asked, stunned.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Our population is probably the equal of Rukheim’s dwarves, although spread out over a much greater area, since we live deep instead of near the surface, which increases your own living space a great deal.” I waved the matter away as mostly irrelevant for the moment. “My people have their own problems with Immortal lies and manipulations I have to free them from, but that is a subject for the future I come from, not for the now.

“We would like you to be the one to secure the true legacy of your people from the Doom that is coming and the coming wipe by Clangyr,” I informed the Regent of the Halls directly. “You may have heard some rumors of the Code Black Protocols whispered by your fellows of the Council of Regents.” I waited until he had nodded slightly. “Excellent. We wish you to take charge of the Code Black protocols for the dwarves of the North, and possibly even the southern clans, and secure your legacy and history. Revered Cruxin has attempted to contact Harnadin and Beroan with magic to with the first gods of his ancestors, and has mysteriously been unable to reach them.” All their eyes turned on the dwarf-priest, who just nodded somberly to the rest of them. “Steps have probably already been taken to subtly cut the Forge-Father off from the words of His people on this world and isolate them in preparation for what is happening in the future. I even imagine that entry into His Outer Plane might well be subtly Interdicted or diverted to prevent any warnings from reaching Him, not that there are any dangers in the present.

“Dwarves are known to exist on other worlds than this world of Nown, so your sudden silence and absence might just be an oversight and disappearance when He goes looking for His worshipers, and finds them all gone, vanished in the face of some great disaster.”

“Stolen by this opportunistic Clangyr,” the Regent of the Halls growled, glaring at his descendants, who could only cast their eyes down in shame at the actions of their Immortal Patron.

“Do not judge His people by His deeds. Put the blame where it belongs, upon His Immortal head. He did save them; He did teach them arts and crafts; and He made them both resistant to the powers poisoning the world above and introduced to them the Divine magic, which gave them a much-need Healing edge which allowed them to survive where otherwise they might not. If they are insular and somewhat distrusting of others, they tend to be of good heart, strong in community and caring for their kin and elders alike… and they are reclaiming some of the arts of fire and steel that you are so famous for in this era.

“They are worthy inheritors… but, of course, their true inheritance was taken from them, and their choice with it.”

Regent Karrackheim straightened up ever-so-slightly. “Vat dost du wish mei to do?” he asked, his voice and accent thick with emotion, aware that now grand visions had to give way to hard practicality.

“We wish you to start up a dwarven colony in our future, preparing the ground that the dwarves can vacate to when the Doom of Darkmoor arrives. We will not be able to save everyone… but we will be able to save some, and the rest, the rest Clangyr will doubtless take.”

All dwarves known came from Rukheim in my era, I’d looked it up. Clangyr had been very thorough about taking the dwarves as HIS servants, and no one elses. Even the bitter and isolated mad craftsdwarves of the Jarldoms originally were banished from Rukheim, regardless of what their tales said.

“Another colony, a safe place to vacate all the dwarves who care to come.” I could tell he was seizing on the idea greedily, for was that not what he had done in the North here? The first time it had been for gold, glory, and removing themselves from the increasingly racist reach of the Iberon Empire. This, this was an even bigger task!

“Dost du know where I could begin establishing such a place?” Himmelstern asked directly.

“I know one for certain, and another that would need be scouted to your satisfaction.” I moved my gaze to Belle. “Belle here is a high noble in the future, the equivalent of a Duke or Archduke here. Her lands border the very area that used to be Darkmoor, and where stands the Thisbean Inn in the future.”

I flicked up the map of Darkmoor again in , indicated Darkmoor City, and then blew it up and revolved it once again, making those here blanch again at the destruction displayed there. A great cratered sea swamped all, and then mountains lifted themselves from the bottom of those seas, while the planet turned and pivoted, and what had been a prosperous land of rivers, streams, and plains became a craggy wasteland of hills and mountains, plateaus and hidden caves, desolate, barren… and overflowing with nifloids.

The marker for the Thisbean Inn blinked inside an isolated crater on a plateau in the center of the area. To the new west, the lands of the principality of Erendyl glimmered within the nation of Zanzyr, abutting those savage hills and its monstrous inhabitants.

“In our time, the descendants of the beast-folk endure, and inhabit this land and the very, very extensive cave systems below it. When I return to the future, that will be one of the great threats to her land that we choose to address.

“We would like the dwarves of Darkmoor to claim that land for their own, take it, hold it, make it grow, and drive the children of Nifl from it. With a great deal of help, have no fear,” I added with something that might have been a smile, were it not so predatory.

He was clearly thinking that I had just accomplished the genocide of their ancestors. There was absolutely no questioning my dedication to the task.

“How bin the ore?” he had to ask.

“Plentiful, and very untapped, because the children of Nifl are not creators, don’t know how to mine in more than the crudest way, and never learned the secrets of forging steel well. I would of course be quite happy to direct you to where some of the finer and more plentiful veins of metals are… and perhaps gemstones and other such, too.”

“There would be no shortage ov the land’s riches to be brought forth, then,” he nodded shortly. “Between the magic und bows of the elves, und the axes und shields ov the dwarves, these descendants ov the beast-folk will have little chance,” he dared to say. “What manner ov time do we have?” he asked calmly.

“In our future, the Doom takes place approximately fifty years from today. There are Immortal hands at work, so the Doom could take place MUCH sooner if blatant actions arouse such, or perhaps longer if we work to forestall them… but like the tides, I believe it is coming, and it cannot be stopped when it does. Where it comes from, we do not know, or even where it is centered when it does.

“But when it comes, Darkmoor is wiped from the world with the North, and the whole world trembles from the Ruin that follows.”