Introduction
Chapter 4:
A warrior’s journey
Eons passed and the stone remained without a bearer, until one day a simple ice farmer cut a cube out from the wrong patch of glacier.
“By the bearded testicles of the luck gods, why did I have to hit earth today?” He yelled out his misfortune to the sky, before jumping down from his machinery to inspect the damage. The plough had bent upward gliding on the ice, instead of digging into the ground. “Oh thank the lips of the goddess of wisdom, to kiss my fate with such blessing that she halted the path of my plough causing it to till up.” The ice cube farmer looked closer, searching for the object he hit which caused the plough to bounce up out of the earth causing less damage to his machinery.
Reaching in with a metal rod, he knocked free the strange artefact he could see wedged between the blades of his plough. “Again I bless you goddess of wisdom, in your radiant beauty and faultless understanding, I bow my head to the grace you have offered me.” The farmer prayed, realising that the object he hit was some last treasure box hidden eons ago.
His day of misfortune had turned to tails and now he looked promisingly ahead to what gold could lie within. Quickly he swaddled the chest in cloth and carried it to his nearby home, for even though he lived alone he did not know what raiders might be watching him carry the prize with him. Now it simply looked as if he had decided to eat his lunch indoors, and so the farmer carried his lunchbox with him home with hammer in hand.
Once indoors he quickly cradled the box against the ground and with his chisel and hammer he knocked gentle against its sides, until they gave way…
Ka-Boom!!!!
He and his house were scorched from the very existence of reality, engulfed in an inferno of alchemy and magic, a fire so intense that not even splinters escaped the explosion.
All that remained was a glowing white hot crystal rock.
Far in the distance, raiders flinched in reaction to the sound of the inferno. Their wolf rides howled in response to the vortex of flame. Their leader saw the flames lick at the sky and his eyes widened, but not in fear. “Get to riding you maggots! Over that horizon we will find our treasure!”
A few hours past, and when they found their treasure, a few more hours passed before there was nothing left but bloodied bodies, claw marks, teeth and death. Their leader had claimed the crystal for himself, but his riders would not let him have it; leaving alone a single individual to carry the rock back to camp.
Whispers followed her, of the screams of her comrades, their gargled breaths and muttered curses as she drew her sword through their chests. Even though it was normal for betrayal during raids, and her tribes people would accept her spoils of war, she turned away from her camp.
Saying instead, “I do not want to go back” she rode clutching the crystal in one hand and the stirrup of her wolf in the other. Her mind was her own yet at the same time it was not, she wanted to follow the will of the stone but the stones will was also her own.
‘Find me a bearer worthy of my power’
For years she searched, feeling it dishonourable to sell the stone her fellow riders died for, but eventually she found a powerful battle sorceress who was skilled in many crafts. She was a sorceress of all the elemental magic’s, yet at the same time this sorceress was also gifted with the ability to wield a sword and arrow like a battle hardened warrior. She was a poet and song writer, inspiring many, as well as a story teller and craftsmen making many artefacts which others could not even dream of bring to being.
“But how can I force this stone into the mages hands?” the rider thought?
Eventually one day when the sorceress was alone, walking the path between two villages, the rider ambushed her! As they fought the sorceress only laughed at the skill of the rider, because even though the rider could kill her whole troop she was unmatched for the sorceress. The stone too which amplified the riders ability, did nothing to aid in defeating the sorceress… however… this was not the intention of the rider.
When finally the sorceress grew bored of the raider’s attempts, she drew her blade and stuck it through the raider’s wolf. Felling the rider, the raider stood up and mocked in fear. “You may be able to kill me but you will never have the power of my tribes jewel” The raider pulled the jewel from her neck, and making sure the sorceress could see the power that shone in it, the raider flung the jewel into the forest.
After killing the raider the sorceress remarked, “I have never seen such a crystal before, a gemstone which in its self a life sparked.” She thought to herself, seeing with her wizard eyes the light around the dead raider of the same colour as the spark of life inside the crystal, she uttered in contempt. “I must have it!”
Searching for hours, both magically and physically, the sorceress eventual can upon the stone, yet before she could take the rock she suddenly began to have doubts.
She thought ‘What is it about this rock that makes me want to have it. I know I usually craft marvels out of my personal interest for the limits of magic and craft, yet somehow I do not see why my interest is sparked with this particular stone? I have no knowledge as to what it does and yet I want to have it. Is this not a trick of the mind, a charm that is but a snake waiting to bite me?’ Hesitant she quivered her hand mere cm’s in front of the crystal.
When finally she made up her mind saying in thought to herself, ‘No, nonsense, I am being foolish, it is just but another rock that need be crafted to my will’ She grasped her hand around the rock, circling her fingers around it, her palm clutched rather than embraced the stone. The power in her gradually elevated but then it was if a fissure had popped within her mind, the power within her eyes intensified until they began to glow brighter than the sun. Opening her mouth to utter her last efforts to remove herself from the crystal of heresy, she felt her mind explode as she willed her tongue to speak its spell.
Releasing a breath of ecstasy the Lord Of Chaos sighed. “Agh your power satisfies me, the hunger ceases and the fires of my passions are further quenched.” Before the spark of magic could entirely die in her the Lord Of Chaos plucked a blade of grass from the ground and turned it into a fine sword of magic. “This body, it has already been blessed with so many objects of power, I almost don’t even need this blade.” And so with that he used his hands to braid the grass blade into a chain in which he used to carry is Crystal.
“This time I will not lose myself to senseless combat, although that can be fun, this time I would like to experience the ravage of time for this time I am in a body that is both feared and respected.”
Time passed and the Lord Of Chaos’s words became so. He lived a long beautiful life in the body of a lady sorceress who was respected and loved. Learning much from the world and teaching much too, he lived for over six lifetimes as a result of his presents within her body; age could not touch her.
…but eventually time did erode his body like a rusted sword and again he slept in the rock in wait for someone worthy to wield him, and someone even stronger whom he would rob of their power to satisfy his hunger.
