The Land Of Rohan

Chapter 3: Flamechild

Chapter III of the chronicles of the land of Rohan

“Marea?” The god’s gentle whisper echoed subtly through the eerie Firmament. His sister replied in earnest, eagerly waiting for an exchange.

“Yes, brother?”

His ego demanded satisfaction. Flox regarded himself the most intelligent and handsome among the Five.

“Am I perfect?”

“Only as perfect as I am, I’m afraid.”

“That is true, isn’t it, sister?”

“Do you doubt, dearest Flox?” The goddess’s voice was as water trickling down marble, pure and delicate.

“No, sister. I only marvel.”

Marea liked to play with her closest, almost twin-like, sibling. He knew that, too, and he loved teasing her along. Being the two gods tied closer to the etheric magic of Rohan, they were made for each other, and often plotted together, as they had done countless times since their vilest contrivance of all, the Purge.

Flox orchestrated what had been the greatest of upheavals out of his corrupt and twisted psyche, and Marea flew to his side in all of it, ever loyal even in the abhorrent act of justified evil. Flox loved his sister only second to how he had loved Ohn.

Marea twiddled the floating wisps and warned her brother of his arrogance. “Stay your mind, lest it forget the tapestry we weave.”

“Do not worry, sister. Formidable Silva has been thwarted, because she was brash and uninformed.”

“We knew of the Dragon, didn’t we?”

“And the wheels have been in motion long before he played that trick with the gwed’hant sarnas.”

“Yes, the flame that fanned the anarchy beneath us.”

“Worry not, Marea. We are smarter than this survivor.”

“Perfect, are we not, brother?”

“Yes, yes, right you are.” With a wistful smile, Flox replied, unhesitating. Flicking the ends of his gossamer garments conceitedly in the air, he continued. “The Dragon will not move unhindered. Rache will keep him in place.”

“What if she fails to stop his pawn?”

“Hmmm… Then we may have succeeded faster than when she did.”

- Rai’ner, Morrisen -

Krieger, the last surviving Great Dragon, who uses mindspeak himself, had just been mindspoken to. He had travelled with the newly empowered Garrick south, towards where he had sensed the improbable call for help strongest. The day then went on with a search for the familiar signal.

Separating, Garrick had made haste to Einhoren to gather hands, while Krieger pondered the current predicament near the vicinity of the lush Rai’ner Forest, his ever present dragonkin companion with him.

“Mordekai, talk to me.”

The miniscule dragonkin hovered in place near Krieger and relayed reconnaissance.

“Garrick had arrived in Einhoren less than a day ago. Still no word from this supposed herald. I sense him no further.” As he was talking, shadows flitted from tree to tree above them. The native birds, undisturbed, showed no sign of alarm, seemingly unknowing of the scrutinizing presences.

“This is getting increasingly annoying, you know that? What kind of messenger asks for urgent help and doesn’t speak of where he is?”

“You’re the one who insisted we still answer the plea, clever master.” Mordekai coughed a small tongue of fire in jest.

“Nobody mindspeaks like that except a God, or a Dragon. I doubt that Silva would want to talk to me and cry, wouldn’t you think? Now go and find this messenger for me. I sense he is near. If Garrick gets to him before you do he will signal; away to me then immediately, and we will rendezvous with him in haste. I have to have this messenger in safe haven foremost.“

“As you wish, master.” Mordekai knew it when his master was angry, and Mordekai knew it too when his master knows something he hasn’t told him yet.

“And rid me of these bastard half-breeds that have been following us all day. They’re more annoying than this blathering heat.”

- Temple of Flox, Ignis -

Flox’s image flitted in and out of the Dark Elf’s consciousness as it engulfed her in its glory. In communing with the god of the gloomy-skinned magicians of Ignis, the meditation was the easy part. Containing Flox’s mystic complex supplied the agony, and it did so unfailingly, for he required no less than perfect abeyance from his subjects.

“You know now what to do, my dear?” asked the searing host of numinous fire.

The Dark Elf, still drunk in the magical stupor, replied in alacrity, “Yes, teacher.”

“Silva had failed. Do not embarrass me as she was by her minions.”

“No sir, I will not.”

Flox swam in her mind, invigorating her with the pain of knowledge and intensity. The God had appeared to her in dreams ever since she was but a whelp in training at the private schools of Narkhant. She had never felt him so deeply than today, when she prayed to him before she set out on a mission accorded to her by Him himself.

The command had come in her sleep after the horror of the Dragon’s Insurrection, when a Dekan claiming to be a survivor of the Purge manipulated the Rohan populace into wanton destruction and laid waste to the masses. Flox had never failed to impress upon her the gravity of her task. She was to face this sham of a saviour and reveal him for what he is.

The god spoke again, in a melody of hurt. “Rache. I taught you everything you know, from whence you were once young. I taught you things the other warlocks do not know.” After a brief pause, the god asked, “I promised you salvation didn’t I?”

“Yes, sir, and I thank you.”

“Do you believe in me?”

Not wanting to displease his deity, Rache never let out a quiver in her voice, even though she was already trembling at the feeling of the anguish of the communiqué.

“Yes, teacher.”

“Then go, Flamechild. Deliver to me the soul that holds Krieger’s message. He must not hear of it, or all that is certain will be made irresolute. My intricate plan must not be soiled.”

Rache replied in the only way she can to her mentor, progenitor, and clandestine icon.

“Yes, teacher.”

And with those two iron-strong words, Flox left the plane of mortal awareness. Rache, stunned and weak after the divine conversation, steeled herself for the daunting duty appointed to her by Flox. She had loved the god from the time when He first entered her mentality.

No Dragon, real or imposter, will stand between her and her beloved God.