160 Chapter One Hundred and Sixty – Of Sources and Voids (1/2)
Rorn was there, waiting out in the darkness. He fell in beside me as I headed back into the Camp.
”I wondered why there were never Berserkers in the Ironblood,” he mused to me.
”Chaotic Good Berserkers are awesome heroes. The rest can go jump off a cliff,” I snorted. ”Just more assholes who want to Rage away and not take responsibility for their choices in life. Use or be used, bow to strength and nothing else.” I gave him an elbow. ”Good job, showing them up.”
”I've been waiting to do so my whole life,” he growled. ”All the High Kings of our people have been Berserkers, but they never last. Too many grudges, too many emotions. They can't build a nation, and even their own clans fracture with infighting, since the whoresons usually have dozens of offspring who all want the throne. I aim to give my people a Warlord and a King who doesn't rely on Rage for strength.”
”Showing them a new way. Powered Monarchs always have problems, in the end,” I sniffed. ”Hard to be a Monarch of people who aren't like you.”
”The Path of Kings is never easy.” He certainly wasn't thinking so. ”It is strange...”
”What is? Everything?” I laughed. ”You'd be growing up if you thought so...”
”It's just... I don't think of you like a queen, but you hold so much power...”
”That's because I'm a Null, and you're a Source. In your eyes, I'm someone who helps you become a King, not a Monarch myself. Nulls make things happen, but they don't sit a real throne.” I waved at the guards as we walked into the Camp, they just nodded back at us. ”You're not the only Source among the Ironblood, you know. They are all looking to become kings and queens of their own kind now, you know?”
”And are using you to do it.” He hmphed, but he had his answer. ”And you don't really care.”
”As long as shit gets done that needs to get done, no. Gotta have leaders, gotta have followers, gotta have guides showing the way... and gotta have crazy people with magic powers doing weird shit to keep things interesting.”
He actually smiled slightly at the thought. ”The gods do seem to enjoy spectacle.”
”It's just a pain in the ass to live through. Then you live through it and are like, 'wow, what a show that was! Wonder what they'll think up next. Ah, shit, forget I said anything... crap!'”
”I think we learned in Nightmare that there was always more shit that could be dropped on us, right?” His eyes flickered with memories of dying, over and over again, to stuff that was so damn strong...
”These chowderheads are giving so many people a chance to get so strong, and they don't even realize it.” I lifted my hands in casual acknowledgement to people walking by, but basically no one disturbed me, as it was late and I was on my way to do my daily reading, and the Salute to the Silver Queen was coming up quickly.
He paused for a half-step. ”It's just like Nightmare, isn't it?” he murmured. ”Foes unending, harvests of Karma, and if you are strong and survive, you get better...”
”Yes. It's a Karmic Buffet, and the Warp Gods are setting the table. It's why I'm not worried about how long this takes. The longer it takes, the stronger we're going to get. Instead of wearing us down to desperate last-stand heroics, they're polishing and refining us. Unless they really go all out with a massive invasion force, we can do this... and if they do try that, well, the gloves come off on our end, too. There'll be a Celestial Cascade, the Armies of Heaven will come down, and we'll see just how Heaven handles things on their end.”
He grunted. ”And they know it, so they're playing along.”
”Only we're not getting tired of fighting, and we're not losing the people we are supposed to. Actually, our healers are getting better and better, just like our fighters.” I smirked. ”It won't be long until we're going to be able to do larger scale Revivifications of the dead, if we get enough people to Nine and Ten.”
Rorn sucked in a breath. ”I'll have to borrow some of those healers that are coming in, then.”
”Borrow away. They are here to be taken advantage of.”
”The anvil that sharpens the sword,” he remembered.
”That they are. Just a lump of iron if they aren't used. Use them.”
”I will.” He clenched his fist. ”And thank you for not undercutting me.”
”If you were sabotaging the fight, you'd be dead. You're trying to prove something while fighting, I have no problems with. You want to leave when done, I'm no slaver, congrats on having a plan and wanting to do right by your people.
”Good people came to me in Nightmare. Wanting to be a king doesn't make you a bad person. It means you know what tough love really stands for.”
He grunted again, tall and proud and ready to fight some more, and make use of all his people to burn a path to being the Kalden High King.
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Three Void Brothers were waiting there as I finished reading from The Book. I put it away, picked up my Shaping Hammer, and got to work on my next project, while /asking, -So, what's up with the three of you? I thought you guys never took breaks?-
They looked at one another, kind of hiding their laughter at my tone. -We are seeking your unique perspective,- Brother Firesword /replied, watching me heat up a longsword there waiting for attention. Actually, four of them. -It seems like a night for you to give lectures.-
-And a good excuse for you to come to The Camp and get laid. Okay, what?- They had the grace to look scandalized, despite the fact I already knew they'd arranged hook-ups. After all, sleeping with the incredibly toned and impossibly dexterous Brothers was veeeeeery sensuous... and that nasty killing rep danger vibe didn't hurt the ol' adrenaline rush. Them finding lovers was so not difficult.
How ticklish their Helices were, well, that was something different...
-Grandmastery,- Brother Windarrow /spoke up firmly. -To be able to kill the Interlopers, we need Grandmastery to, ah, get our damage up high enough to be effective.- He glanced at the shortest of their number.
-The Shadowknives inherit a Grandmastery called Time to Die,- the hyn /spoke in his androgynous voice. -It involves cutting at a being's temporal existence with our dimensional awareness. However, my Brothers do not have such awareness, and so cannot emulate it.-
I calmly /shuffled them all into a chatbox, and opened up the Doors to the other Brothers, who didn't seem all that busy and were not averse to joining in.
-Part of that is because of your low numbers. Have you contacted other Brotherhoods, or started recruiting more heavily? More minds solve problems.-
They collectively blinked. -It's not a... no, the subject of Grandmastery has never come up on our information exchanges with other Brotherhoods. As for recruits... that is only done by the Land.- Emotions rolled behind the Firesword's words.
-Huh. Who told you that?- I /asked all of them.
They collectively flinched. -It... has always been that way,- the Shadowknife said softly. -One Void of each Order per landmass.-
-Minimum.-
They all froze. -What?- the distant Ancientaxe /blurted out at the correction.