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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 8, 2022 16:19:19 GMT
Entering the area with the holding cells, Cody sees the cages are not even fit for livestock. Men are stacked like firewood.
Continueing his sermon, Cody exclaims, " This is obscene! The Unicorn rejoices when you treat each other worse than the lowest vermin. Throw open all these cages and set your selves free. "
Cody sees a pair of Officers shouting orders, trying to regain control. They turn to Cody and command the enlisted men to restrain him. An enlisted man raises his hand to the Officers to show his bloody palm. "I have sworn blood for piece."
One of the Officers raises his side arm and shoots the Mutineer in the face shouting, "Treason!"
A group of soldiers grab the Officers and strip them of their weapons.
Cody moves to face the Officer who summarily executed his own soldier.
"You are a tool of the accursed Unicorn. See the light or face eternal darkness."
Cody places his hands on the sides of the man's head and looks him in the eyes. The Officer spits in Cody's face. Cody presses his hands together and crushes the man's head while the man screams in agony until his head implodes and he dies. Cody lets go and the limp form collapses to the floor to be stomped on by the liberated men. The other Officer is also beaten to death.
Cody finds Brian and the young boy.
"Yes, I will accompany you for a while. As long as my pathway home remains open."
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Post by Brian on Nov 8, 2022 22:47:54 GMT
I help wolfram up and take the boy with us as we leave the War Zone. Horses are near enough.....CONVENIENTLY near enough. Given the use of vehicles in this shadow horses seem a bit of an oddity. Brian helps the boy up and then mounts his horse. I turn to Cody.
"Well this was an interesting way to make it through a battlefield. I am not sure I can get the bards to tell that story a way they'd like. I'd have to think on that a bit. Seems your view on the whole religion of the Unicorn is a bit....poor."
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 9, 2022 2:40:44 GMT
Cody sees the horses and frowns. "I see we're heading somewhere LowT." Cody walks up to his designated mount and rubs his hands over the flanks. Moving around to the horse's head he presses his forehead to the horse's and whispers an apology before climbing on.
"Bards, you say? Have them begin with the ending. Bards love blood and gore. Have them sing of how the anti-martyrs were crushed and stomped. I didn't like doing that, but the covenant had to be sealed with blood."
Cody thinks on the subject at hand and continues, "Do your Bards sing of Amber and Chaos? The feud between the Unicorn and Serpent? The final battle at Patternfall?"
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Post by Brian on Nov 9, 2022 2:55:53 GMT
I laugh softly "My people don't speak of Amber or Chaos. We tend to keep to ourselves. I've been told the people of Amber are my people by blood. But I only know that second or third hand."
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 9, 2022 16:28:16 GMT
"Well, if you are indeed a Child of Amber, you will know something of Pattern and Logrus: The manifestations of power of the Damned Unicorn and Sublime Serpent."
"There was a power struggle, like all wars, between factions of the Accursed Unicorn."
"In Amber there was an abdication of the throne which was designed to test the heirs apparent. This, in turn, inspired some heirs further removed from the throne to conspire for power. As a blood curse was uttered in the course of these machinations a way was opened for the Courts of Chaos to intercede and also make a play for Amber. One from Amber conspired with the Courts to not only take Amber, but also to destroy and redraw the Pattern in his own image."
"The Pattern was damaged and the Courts of Chaos were on the doorstep of Amber and laying siege. The King had returned to Amber and in a final act he threw all of his forces against the Courts of Chaos while he repaired the Pattern using the Jewel of Judgement. Succeeding but dying in the process. The Jewel was then sent ahead to the chosen heir who used then lost the Jewel."
"In the final battle at the edge of the Abyss in the Courts of Chaos, the one who conspired to destroy and remake the Pattern got possession of the Jewel of Judgement."
"My M-unit - Mother - fought in that last battle to save Amber and stop the one megalomaniac that then possessed the stone. That one coward with the insatiable thirst for power took my M-Unit hostage and used her as a human shield to save himself. He was mortally wounded and was propelled into the Abyss as the battle concluded."
Cody chokes on the words he uses to conclude his story:
"He dragged M-unit into the Abyss with him."
"Then, at the end, the Accursed Unicorn shows up on the scene. She went into the Abyss and retrieved the Stone. In and out without a second thought towards saving her granddaughter! My M-unit!"
"I was just a little more than a child on that day. I was only newly arrived in Amber when I was pulled into the King's funeral procession which followed the Black Road into the Courts of Chaos to be inturned in the Abyss."
"On arriving into the Courts of Chaos I heard news of my M-unit's circumstance. Having been alive when she was pulled into the Abyss. Impulsively, I dived into the Abyss to find her. To do what the heartless and selfish Unicorn neglected to."
"Unprepared, unarmed and unarmoured, the turbulent and violent conditions inside the Abyss nearly killed me on that occasion. The Demon residents were able to rescue and resuscitate me. From that day, I renounced the Unicorn and allied myself with the Demons and their Serpent."
"I have to believe that M-unit survives. Her, a powerful warrior fully armed and armoured. Lost in the vast Abyss. So I search for her."
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Post by Brian on Nov 9, 2022 23:28:55 GMT
I listen to all of that. I am silent for a bit as Cody tells his story.
“I don’t get much into the religious aspect of such things. My lady wife thinks its unseemly to be worshiped as a deity……which is funny given who she is.”
I smile a bit.
“I am sorry about your mother. I thought I knew who my parents were but it turns out.”
I have a bit of a pained expression on my face.
“Were they tricked? Were they altered? Did they lie to me….its frustrating. I ended up coming to my current home where family means a lot. And I’m alone. I am in a land of people who hate outsiders…..and I am the only acceptable outsider. It really doesn’t give one much comfort. ‘You’re one of the good ones.”
I shake my head as we approach the town. Seeing Horses, Corpses, the remains of chemical containers that have ruined lakes and rivers. *SOMEHOW* a Bridge that should be destroyed isn’t as I lead you cross the river towards the village. Soldiers, Civilians, Clergy….animals….all of them are dead and strewn about the land.
I look at Wolfram “ Stay close.”
As I lead you through there a few soldiers are dead and a woman is dying in bed. Wolfram has the look on his face of a child soldier who see’s his mother dying. I motion for the boy to go to his mother.
I turn to Cody “ Luckily there is enough carrion about for you to get your pay here.”
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 10, 2022 3:20:24 GMT
"'Opium des Volkes.' I'm not pious per se. It's the expression of gratitude for the people of the Sheltering Coils Temple that saved me and cared for me. I pay it back anyway I can. So my devotion is to the institution rather than the diety. If the legend is true, I am descended from the Bloody Unicorn. Which makes me a demigod, if that's to be believed." Cody shakes his head and gives a chuckle.
"My hatred is seen as religious furver. But I don't think it's really hate. I'm just very angry."
Considering Brian's words. "Parents. Mothers. Fathers. M-unit wanted to raise me away from the influence of her family. So that I wouldn't be spoiled and jaded. Politically corrupted. I don't know who my Father is, but that never mattered because of the environment I was in. In a creche, all the other children are your siblings and all the adults share the parenting. It's all communal. I guess that's another reason I cling to the Temple. The commune."
"Anyway, enough about me. You: You suspect, or know, that you were adopted, or fostered. I suspect that your Bio-Parent had similar motives for not wanting to raise you in the precincts of Amber. But, if you don't mind me saying, it looks like they did want to toughen you up and make you into a warrior."
Cody sees Wolfram go to his M-unit. Wondering if he could offer any aid. A laying of hands that might heal her, but it's not a power that he possessed.
Turning back to Brian, "Tell me about your Goddess Wife and your adopted people."
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Post by Brian on Nov 10, 2022 4:20:33 GMT
“I don’t know. I can’t say.” I say in regard to the parents’ comment. “Hearing all the finer details of Amber gives me all manner of explanations, but the fact I could have an answer doesn’t provide me with a balm until I find an answer.” I pull out a flask of mead. And hand it to Cody. “I came from a place called Earth originally. I was born and raised in a place called Virginia. Dad was a officer in the Navy for the country where Virginia was located in. I was transported to another world called Ayalos. Its kind of similar to the old Irish world for Other. It has four moons and a misty shore. It has a history of half remembered invasions spoken of in hushed tones and legends.” After a second swig of the Mead, I out a clove cigarette. “The gods of an old place on Earth called Ireland had all sorts of secrets in an oral history. It speaks to the gods coming to some other Place…..where they learned the magic and secrets of being a god. I wouldn’t know it till I met my dear sweet Annie. “ I take a long drag. “She who is 3, sometimes 5, even 4 but always one. The Phantom Queen of Ayalos. ” I hand a small bit of meat to Hal. ” Shapeshifter, Sorceress, and bard….a spirit of life and death…..a mistress of war and fertility…..a lady of madness and motherhood.” “The Morrigan, the Great Queen. She started her affection for me because I found her on Ayalos. She knew of me as an Earthman…..and I knew her for what she was. And instead of fear I embraced her with my heart.”
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 11, 2022 1:46:06 GMT
Cody accepts the meade. "That sounds like you are a very lucky man to have found someone that you respect and admire, and also love, who also loves you back. Especially after being displaced from your childhood home."
Cody looks at Hal and watches Brian give it some meat. "Are you a strict carnivor? I have some dried fruit if you'd like. And you too Brian."
"I had a companion named Tch-Tch when I was younger. A furry cat-like space-Tardigrade."
Cody looks at Wolfram and his mother. "So, what do we do with them now? Can she be saved?"
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Post by Brian on Nov 11, 2022 1:56:49 GMT
"Well," I laugh "She loves me in her way."
Hal perks up "I'm a raven. I eat what I want. "
I shake my head "Not in a place like this....but I believe I can take him somewhere he can be cared for."
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 11, 2022 2:51:23 GMT
Cody laughs back. "It's all we can hope for. To have a soft place to land."
Cody reaches into his sporran and pulls out a waxed pouch filled with dried fruits and nuts and offers a small handful to Hal while passing the rest to Brian.
"Take some and give the rest to Wolfram and his M-unit. They can have my mount too. I can fly."
Cody looks up to make sure the bit of Abyss still looms over them.
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Post by Brian on Nov 11, 2022 3:36:46 GMT
the Darkness is still in the sky.
And I start to feed the fruit to the bird.
" So....you find your M-Unit. Then what?"
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 11, 2022 13:33:22 GMT
Cody had been so obsessed with finding his M-unit that the question took him by surprise, "Oh, wow. I was just a kid when I jumped into the Abyss. I just figured that we'd go back to Station and resume our normal lives. Friends, creche-mates, Piloting the Flux... But now... I've made so many new friends. And I guess I'll have to deal with family in Amber eventually."
"Everything will get turned upside down and inside out again."
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Post by Brian on Nov 11, 2022 15:55:59 GMT
I nod to Cody.
" I've not wanted to go to Amber but....family is important. It gnaws at me. Was I abandoned? Was I left to keep me safe? Was my arrival on Ayalos all some sort of scheme? And well....Amber , Chaos, and Rebma are certainly the heroes of their own stories. But out in the hinterlands in shadows....they arent the heroes they tell in their own stories. How do I come to terms with being one of Them?"
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Post by Cody D'Avalon on Nov 11, 2022 17:49:34 GMT
"At some point I'll have to let go of trying to find M-unit. Accept that she's lost forever. Maybe then I'll go to Amber. Search for some answers there. I'll bring an army of psychoanalists with me."
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