A Final Bloom

The barrier consisted of a large, plain room. Beige walls, ceiling and floor, no windows and lit by a single large dome light. A box about twenty meters long, twenty meters wide and four meters tall. Large enough that there was plenty of room so that everyone who wanted to be there could. And large enough that if **** became necessary, there was room to do so.

The only thing that stood out in the bland chamber was a circle set into the center of it. It was rather plain as well, but the glowing silver still drew the eye.

“Guessing I’m standing there?” John asked, pointing at the circle.

“Not unless you want to be stuck in there with whatever you end up summoning,” Goe answered with a small smirk. “You just need to aim the spell in there. Once it starts, the isolating magic will kick in.”

“Not looking to do a cage match.” John chuckled nervously.

“There won’t be a fight,” Tok said with the certainty of claiming the sky was blue. “We’ll see Gep’kes Ani and she’ll explain things to us.”

“Glad someone believes in this plan,” John said, earning a clap to his back from the dwarf.

“The logic in it is sound,” Vivian chimed in as she approached. “The vision Lorelei had pointed us in this direction and I doubt Lord Brighton would go along with it if he doubted her insights.”

As if summoned by the calling of his name, the Lord-Protector stepped forward.

“Is everything ready?” he asked in a commanding tone.

“Our aethersmiths have assured us it is,” Vel answered, placing heavy emphasis on the first part of his response, a clear challenge to Lord Brighton’s assumption of authority. Then to further establish he was in charge, the dwarf leader turned to John. “Ready, Mr. Newman?”

“As I will be,” John replied, summoning the vial to his hand. He had a good idea how this was going to work and left it sealed. “Just aim for the center of the circle, right?”

He took a breath, banishing every thought about love and what could go wrong, and stepped up to the circle. Behind him, everyone tensed, ready for the worst case to happen as he raised his hand. He poured most of his mana into the vial, its warmth growing with each input of fifty mana until it was nearly burning his skin.

Then the whole vial, ash and glass alike, vanished, and a tempest of ashen embers manifested in the circle. It swirled like a tornado, growing in size and brightness before it began to condense down into a familiar, dwarven form.

Avatar of Gep’kes Ani summoned. Due to her divine nature, the avatar will fade twice as fast.

“Oh, that is not a pleasant experience at all,” Gep’kes Ani’s voice came out of the simulacrum, rougher than what it was in the temple vision. She stretched, small flakes of ash falling off her skin and simulated robe. She opened her eyes, glowing embers looking out over them before glancing down at the circle around her. She chuckled.

“I’ll give you credit for preparedness,” she said. “But I had hoped the message I left would be enough proof.”

“You’ll forgive us for being a bit cautious,” Vel spoke up, stepping closer. “It’s been a long day.”

“I’m sure,” the manifestation of the goddess said. “Sadly, I don’t think we’ll have the time for an equally long chat.”

“She’s burning through the mana twice as fast,” John explained for those who couldn’t see his popups. “We’ve got nine minutes, not eighteen.”

“Wonderful,” Lord Brighton remarked in a clipped tone. “Then we should get on with the most pressing questions.”

The goddess regarded the leader of the Order with cold eyes, a striking feat given her eyes were glowing embers. “I am not beholden to you, Fading Light of the Golden Rose. You will not make demands of me.”

Her eyes fell to Vel. “Nor will you. I don’t hold your forefather’s sins against you, Vel Foh Baz, but know that I will not answer to ancient contracts.”

To prove her point, she stepped across the circle.

“And what about new contracts?” Tok spoke up, his voice wavering with nerves.

The ashen goddess smiled, but there was a sadness to it that showed through her ashen features. “That is something I no longer have the power to grant, Tok Foh Baz. Much like what you have already seen, I am merely a preserved copy. My progenitor is long past.”

“Then I think we shouldn’t delay,” Tok said solemnly. “Your wisdom shouldn’t be lost.”

“Boy, you are far more than others will give you credit for,” Gep’kes Ani said. “Cultivate that and you will go far.”

She took a breath, her exhale sending out a small cloud of ash. “Time is short and I have none for pointless questions any longer. I have three things to speak of, and Gaia to thank for the chance to impart these revelations. She let me perceive the growth of the universe and prepare for it.”

“The Lady’s light preserves,” Lorelei remarked in a soft, prayer-like voice.

“First,” Gep’kes Ani continued without acknowledging the seer’s adoration, “was a revelation about what power the Vel’tsh had aligned themselves with.”

Verida took a step forward, and out of the corner of his eye, John noticed Harker tense up.

“Before the war started, there was a member of the Vel’tsh, a bladesmith of some renown, Roltin Shan. His skill made him known beyond Olnaght, which was the first step to the endless war. An adventurer came to the Kingdom, seeking his expertise in weapon crafting. What started as a commission led to Shan joining this man on his ventures. For over ten years, as tensions between the clans grew and the first sparks of war were ignited, they traveled. Their entourage grew to seven and they came to face something powerful, but what was not revealed to me.

“Shan returned changed. He still worked his craft, his skills even more refined from what he had learned in the decade away, but he was quicker to anger and had no patience for those that wasted his time. Only a few years later, he left once more, this time for decades. The only contact he had with his homeland was regular shipments of arms.

“It was fifty years before he returned in person. By then, the conflict between Vel’tsh and Lah’men had grown and ground to a stalemate. Neither side was willing to compromise or seek peace, each trying to produce stronger armies and more effective weapons. The Lah’men began to employ their legacy weapons, allowing their successive warriors to hold on to the skills of their forebears. Fearing things would tip against them, the Vel’tsh approached Shan.

“I know not what they offered him, or what he may have demanded of them, but soon, weapons and armor of higher quality began to outfit the Vel’tshi armies. Armaments that drove them to fight with furious vigor. Even the mortally wounded kept fighting, weapons swinging until their hearts stopped. And even then, some kept up the fight for a time after.”

“So our distant kin are no more,” Vel solemnly remarked.

“Hardly,” the goddess said, her lips twitching into a faint grin. “They kept up the fight, developing more techniques and artifice to close the gap. But I can’t say they are in a good position. The war is in a lull at the moment, but beyond the knowledge that large scale battles aren’t happening, I know nothing.”

Vel grunted an acknowledgement, his expression thoughtful.

“If the history of this conflict was the first of your revelations, what of the next two?” Lord Brighton asked. “Some means to combat them?”

“In a winding way, yes,” Gep’Kes Ani answered. “I’ll start with the one with a stronger connection to you.”

Gep’Kes Ani pointed a finger at Rowan. “The soul interlinked with yours is of Olnaght, the last of an order of warrior monks tasked to imprint new techniques upon the relic weapons. Nurture your bond and she will become a staunch ally when the time comes for your paths to join.”

“Your words imply that a means to reach this Kingdom will be open to us,” Lorelei spoke up.

“Or she’ll find her way to Rowan,” John interjected.

“However things are to come to pass, if you wish to stand against this storm, gathering allies would be a wise decision,” the goddess continued, only for Lord Brighton to cut in.

“You speak as if war is upon us,” he said in a firm voice.

“Because it is,” Gep’Kes Ani replied coolly. “The Vel’tsh, or more accurately, Shan and his followers, will not allow a bastion of the Lah’men, even ones that threw off their name a millennia ago, to live free.”

“There’s also the high probability that they’re connected to our current issue,” Harker said. “A blacksmith with access to some high level magic fits very nicely with a sword designed to seal away a powerful elf. Especially if their power comes from the same source.”

“The details do line up,” Gin added, then muttered something under her breath in a language John didn’t understand. Whatever it was, it earned a withering glare from several of the dwarves in attendance.

“I think gaining any allies is a worthy goal to work towards,” Verida remarked. “Do you have more insights on how our paths might converge, honored elder?”

“Finally, some respect.” Gep’Kes Ani chuckled. “But the paths that need to be taken are not known to me. All I can offer is this advice: Do not let this bond grow fallow. You do not know what fruit it may bear, but in lean times, any sustenance is better than none.”

“We will keep that in mind as we adjust Squire Donnelly’s training regiment in light of these developments,” Lord Brighton answered for Rowan. John caught a flash of frustration racing across Rowan’s face at her commander's interposition in her growth, but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished, schooled back into professional neutrality.

“Now, the third thing is far more nebulous, but falls along the same lines,” Gep’Kes Ani continued. “There is one more errant daughter of Olnaght who will take up arms against Shan and his Forge. One that today’s events have begun her rebellion.”

“Rebellion?” Vel echoed. “Do we assume that she was someone within the Forge’s existing structure or a Lah’men clan member done with Shan’s rule?”

“She is of neither, for she was born of the Forge itself,” Gep’Kes Ani revealed. “During the war, one of my siblings chose to confront Shan directly. Sho’Kus Mai was always the shortsighted one.”

“The god of tales and inspiration?” Tok asked. “But, he wasn’t one for fighting.”

“No, he wasn’t,” the goddess said sadly. “But he believed there was a way to resolve things without further bloodshed. I know not what became of him, but his presence became a dim glow after he left. But Gaia’s gift to me, and to you through me, is the knowledge that life arose from the conflict between Sho’Kus Mai and Shan.”

“Life?” Lord Brighton asked.

“A soul born from the conflux of powers, swaddled in the heat of the Forge and kept bound out of fear of what threat she could pose to Shan’s plans,” Gep’Kes Ani revealed. “A demigoddess who bears the scars carved by the tools of the Forge. But one who holds the ember of resistance. Shan fears what power she may hold over the Forge, but dares not kill her out of a greater fear her demise might spell.”

“So he holds her in chains and tortures her instead,” Lord Brighton growled, an unusual display of anger breaking through his stoic facade.

“How is she rebelling?" John asked. “Are there people helping her?”

“The shifting energies of today have allowed her to reach out beyond the bounds of her physical being,” the goddess answered. “Her soul is seeking a herald to be her voice and arm in the greater world.”

John immediately thought back to the hands that grabbed his wrist during the vision preceding their escape from the temple. He had assumed them to be Rita’s; the echoes of the past he had seen certainly had been her, but could it have been this imprisoned soul reaching out?

“Do you have any insights as to who?” Vel asked.

“I see a woman unknowingly standing in the shadow of power,” Gep’Kes Ani answered, her body beginning to crumble. The summoning was nearing its limit. “Her counterpart glows with magic while the potential within her lies dormant as she stands alone. The scion of Forge and Tales will be the spark to ignite her flames.”

“Hardly narrows it down,” Gin griped.

Gep’Kes Ani regarded Gin with a sour glare as her body continued to crumble, then over to John with softer expression. “The Scion is flushed with the power of the Forge. Items marked by its power could be drawn to her like a lodestone.”

“The Ireaon shard,” John realised. “Maybe we could make it into a compass.”

Gep’Kes Ani smiled, ash falling off her face with the movement. “That is all I have left to reveal. The rest is up to you to shape as you will.”

The magic ran out and the ashen avatar of Gep’Kes Ani fell apart.