BECMI Chapter 306 – Shadows of Lies

“Invading the Sidheduiche is utter madness, and even worse…” I shook my head at the folly of it all. “Do you also remember the tales of the Blessing of the Waters?” I asked her.“Of course!” she responded immediately, her pale gray eyes flashing. “Gaebrel blessed us with prosperity, causing the rivers and lakes of the deeps to rise to greater depths, linking distant chambers and allowing more fish and aquatic life to flourish in them! There are still elders who remember the days of watching the waters rise, and the prosperity it brought as they did!”

I nodded, very slowly, her enthusiasm faltering. “All true, but for one key point. The waters started rising two years after the date of the great Ritual that founded the Relarin forest, and which started the nightly rains on the surface above.” She blinked in stunned comprehension, seeing where this was going. “Gaebrel had nothing to do with it. The Blessing of the Waters came from some of the waters from the rains of the Relarin filtering down through the stone and raising the water table as they did so. If you could with the land, or follow the source of the waters back to where they come from, you would realize that those nightly rains provide all the water that sustains the Shaden deep under the earth.

“We were blessed by the surface elves in absentia, as it were, without them even trying to do so.” As my mother wavered, trying to believe that, I went on. “If we invade the Relarin and the rains go away, the waters of the deep will also drain away, back to their ancient levels, likely within a decade. Any Shaden who choose to remain underground will have to go back to the lifestyle of a thousand years ago, and any who return from their fire hazard of a dead forest with ash in their mouths will find the caverns as dry and hostile as our forebears did.”

My mother wavered, and then stepped over to the small table in the kitchen, seating herself a bit stiffly on a chair of stiffened and lacquered, cushioned mushroom bark, the much- pattern still familiar to me from my childhood. Silently, I joined her at the one across from her that I had been sitting on as she entered the room.

“You said I might be killed knowing of these things,” she finally whispered to me. “I… surface elves have died at my hand, Edgina, on the orders of my superiors. It, the…” she shook her head, half-trembling, “they really were as bright and open as they seemed, ready to help us, and not hiding their hypocrisy?”

She really, really wanted it to not be true, that she could absolve herself of the blame for what were clearly now undeserved murders, not deserved punishment for callous actions by a dishonorable people.

“The blame is on King Ershultaen and the lies he has spoken to our people for two elven generations now, mother.” I paused significantly. “Do you have any objection to me revealing this to our people? I can definitely do so, and they will believe it.”

She stared at me for a long moment, then closed her eyes. “I… cannot predict what would follow, but I cannot imagine it will be pleasant.” Then she tilted her head back and stared up at the stone roof of the room we sat in, but her eyes were elsewhere, remembering other things. “For the sake of our people returning to the surface, without having to make war upon other, blameless elves? It is worth it.”

“Do you wish to return to the surface? I am in the process of founding an Elven Homeland in the far north of Eislas. They will certainly not turn away my own mother,” I said primly.

She blinked at me again. “You, you are founding an Elven Homeland?” she repeated in disbelief.

It was my turn for my eyes to flash. “Ah, I have been somewhat busy this last century, mother. I am , I believe is the proper phrase, and likely the single most powerful elf on the entire world,” I stated matter-of-factly, and just for the barest hint of a second, hummed a Note.

The magic of the house trembled around me. My mother swayed in her seat and nearly fell off it as the spells in her head resonated with that Note.

“You… are an Elven Archmage?” she asked, stunned that I had eclipsed her in power… but she could not deny what she had just felt, steadying herself carefully as she stared at me.

“And Archpriestess of the ancient Ur Tradition,” I confirmed to her calmly. “And a full Archsorceress on the Warrior Path, as well, considered a Grandmaster of the Hand, the Spear, and the Staff, and I can get by in the bow, the dagger, the shield, and the longsword.” Because those were traditional weapons of the elves, and I had little else to spend the proficiency slots from otherwise empty Levels on over those many long years of training.

Being a Master of those weapons also helped a great deal with training up other elves.

She stared at me as if I’d grown another head, and then shook her head ruefully, a slow and proud smile spreading across her features. “You were always precocious and eager to go exploring, learning magic so young. It appears that your drive to excel never left you like it does so many of us…”

Oh, she had no clue. “I am also a High Cryptomancer of that Secret School of Zanzyr. Princess Brittabelle acknowledges me as an equal, not merely an advisor.”

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My mother had attended the Great School, if only for a short time, before the Headmaster had unceremoniously drummed her out for spying and giving nothing back. She knew of the Secret Schools, and knowing I was ranked at the top of one of the Schools was as stunning as finding out I was an archmage in the first place.

“Is, is your magic still… odd?” she asked as diplomatically as she could. Black skeletons and floating spirits festooned with crimson roses had accompanied myself and Number One all through our childhood, after all.

“Oh, entirely. I daresay it is even worse than you remember, mother,” I nodded without a flicker of emotion, and she actually sighed, a wry smile somehow finding its way out onto her lips.

“I would wonder if such… unnerving displays would have stirred up distrust of you, but in Zanzyr I imagine you were little more than an entertaining curiosity…” she trailed off, considering me. “You are a peer of the Erendyl Princess. How does your power compare to the rest of them?” she asked with interest.

“They have no knowledge of my actual power, but I would crush them all, save Headmaster D’Arc himself, and him mostly because he cheats.” Being an Immortal Avatar parked above and pulling on the Radiance from the Core of All Magic as he pleased. “With the Radiance,” I added for her. “He is the Grandmaster of the Radiance in Zanzyr, of course, the power behind the organization of the entire nation and its status as a magocracy. He is also the Immortal Thaum.”

She straightened in astonishment, one revelation after another. “You are certain of this?” she gasped in a low voice.

“Absolutely. He is also the guardian and controller of the Radiance’s source, which bears such whimsical names as the Core of All Magic, the Nucleus of Mana, the Source of the Radiance, and other pithy appellations. It resides over five miles directly below the Great School of Magic of Zanzyr.”

My mother’s staring was interrupted by putting her hands to her head, trying to deal with all the grand secrets I was just lobbing at her. “Edgina, you are saying things to me that I have no capability of dealing with!” she chided me.

“Well.” She peeked out at me cautiously. “They led me into the great lies that Gaebrel has woven for our people.”

That slowly brought her hands down, the blood draining slowly from her face as she considered my unmoved expression. “You, this… you informed me of the mortal identity of an Immortal just to prove you know of Immortal doings. You revealed the location of the Source of the Radiance to show you know where the power of the priests of Gaebrel comes from.” She paused, and her eyes widened slightly. “You have the power to wield the Radiance…” she whispered.

“As do you, and anyone who accumulates the power in a soul stone or Radiant Receptacle. The latter being only useful for Wizards, of course.” I reached back, and she did a double-take when she realized that my Staff had been sitting there in the corner behind me, completely unnoticed for this entire time, as he slapped into my hand.

I lowered head, and off popped the Energized Black Star Sapphire that was his cap. The vein of soul crystal running the length of him and storing his Immortal Power within was not visible, of course.

The Sapphire was as big as my fist, the crimson six-pointed star a magnificent example of the gemstones, a nonesuch. She stared at it in my fist.

“First lie. Elven souls, and indeed, any mortal souls, have nothing whatsoever to do with gemstones,” I told her, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “The reason the priestesses say this is so people will not dig for the soul crystals and break what few remain while grasping after some additional mineral wealth. Our people came from the surface, mother, and were born, lived, and died without ever seeing a gemstone.

“Our souls are of life, light, and song, mother, not cold crystal buried deep in the ground. Gemstones have nothing to do with our spirits whatsoever, nor even the dwarves, who are far more bound to the stone than we.”

She hesitated, staring at my eyes, and then slowly reached out to take the proffered gem. “You always said your dominion was Blood and Souls…” she murmured under her breath.

“Look inside,” I told her, and she hesitantly lifted it to her eye.

She gasped at what she saw within it. “There… I know that light!” she whispered urgently, lowering the gem quickly.

“Yes. I can also use the Radiance, as you guessed. It is not restricted to the priests. Surface Wizards can use it with little restraint, although they do not have access to soul crystal, and thus use Receptacles that are much more obvious and not so portable. Of course, soul crystal decays instantly in sunlight, so mine is secured within the black sapphire here, which fragments and neutralizes all light that falls upon it.”

I popped the great gem back into place. It shimmered briefly as it set with a click, and then I stood back up in the corner.

Her eyes were narrowed thoughtfully as she considered my Staff. “The tone you speak of the Radiance with… has no reverence, only… disdain?” she asked, her expression distinctly uneasy. “It has been one of the greatest and most sacred weapons of our people for centuries…” she pointed out carefully.

“It has been one of the great curses of our people, mother,” I corrected her coldly. “Use of the Radiance demands a price. Two prices, actually, and that is not even considering the ignorance of its origin.” I shook my head coldly at her expression. “The Core of All Magic is what remains of the device that created the Crimson Cataclysm! And Gaebrel is trying to create another one inside His main temple, here in Sternvult!”

Her face twisted in shock and horror. “Wh-what?” she gasped in pure denial. “That, that cannot be true! Gaebrel has always cared for us! Why would He do such a thing?!”