PreCursive

  My steps echoed oddly loud as I stepped into the ruined courtyard where Tzo and Nerexxa had stood, only moments ago. It was silent in this se of the city, with the sc of all of the Revenants by their very own source. I deliberately approached the smooth, nearly mirror-polished se of stone where Tzo had floated, because I saw something.

  His staff.

  Somehow, Tzo’s wooden ebony staff, with its amber-colored crystal glowing faintly iificial night, had survived his destru. Without turning to look behi the monstrous existence I could feel b down on me, I bent at the waist to touch it. The moment my fingers brushed its surface, I felt a very real chill run down my spine.

  But…it wasn’t an ominous one. Instead, the magical instrument emanated a pead stillhat embodied the silence of the grave, over the uainty of the void. It was the acceptance of death and its sequences, and not the fear of the unknown.

  This wasn’t a on that would hurt me.

  The opposite, really.

  My ag, wounded soul immediately felt bolstered by the might of the staff, and I was able to withstand the full attention of the Godbound much, much better. My fingers curled around the staff, and I picked it up. I straightened and finally turo face the behemoth at my back.

  I nearly quailed at the attention it was direg down at me.

  When I had first seen the Godbound on the horizon, after exiting Tzo’s b, the creature had looked to be nearly resting, as it focused on attuning the Portal Sto was clearly still doing so, from the spiral of murk that reached into the sky, inating from iween its legs. Deep in the ter of that tornado, I could faintly see the actual Portal Stone, so simir in appearao the one I had met Fade behind. But now, the Godbound wasn’t resting anymore.

  Instead, it had shifted its titanic arms forward to rest on its arms, and leaned over to look downward at the courtyard. Its head oking through the stream of smoke that was enveloping the Portal Stone, now. The murk was rushing past its scaled head, curling around gargantuan chiropteraures and casting them in an even more demonic light.

  Its eyes were open.

  They were as equally massive as the rest of it, and were crimson red in color. The entire eye, in fact. There was no deliioween an iris, or a pupil, or a sclera. There was nothing to focus, or to tell what it was fog on.

  Just an endless expanse of blood that gazed out at the world it was corrupting with its very presence.

  A, somehow I knew I had its full attention.

  I took a deep, shuddering breath, and did something potentially foolish.

  I cast Observe on the creature.

  But…for the first time since I had acquired the Skill…it pletely failed. Somehow, the ability wasn’t able to quantify a sihing about the Godbound that loomed over me like a mo. It was like…the Skill just slid off of it.

  But the Godbound still noticed.

  THERE IS NO NEED.

  I…AM RHAZAL.

  THE HARROWER.

  FATHER OF MONSTROSITY.

  HE WHO DENIES.

  AND YOU…

  ARE A BLADE IN THE DARK.

  HYSELF, BLADE.

  My grip tightening oaff held in my remaining hand, I decided to ahe thing. After all, what else could I do? “My name…is Nathaniel Eugene Hart,” I said slowly. “You know what I am.” I wasn’t even asking a question. It was just something I had noticed, about most of the old powers I’d met, sans Nerexxa. Nearly all of them had some way of telling that I reaybe it was something io my soul that tipped them off, but I had no way of knowing.

  But there was no point denying it.

  And Rhazal didher.

  I DO.

  NATHANIEL…EUGENE…HART.

  PRECURSOR.

  Each utterance of each part of my name felt like a blow against my spirit. I nearly doubled over, leaning heavily on my borrowed staff. But I withstood it.

  Somehow.

  Abruptly, Rhazal leaned ba his makeshift throne, head retreating beyond the smog of its attu. The sound of scales grinding against stone echoed out across the ey of both cities, briefly sending up an answering cry from the Revenants assaulting them even now. Somehow, it reached me, even here.

  But I could still see those horrible eyes fog on me, pierg through the gloom like red hot coals.

  I WOULD TREAT WITH YOU, PRECURSOR.

  DO NOT RESIST.

  Before I could even ask what it was talking about, Rhazal twitched one massive finger. A curl of smoke speared down from the sky, closing in on me. For a moment, I feared that I was about to be disied in much the same way that Tzo had been.

  But no, instead of attag me, the smoke poured around my feet, f into what looked like a ptform. I stumbled slightly, when the makeshift ptform began to rise into the sky, takih it.

  In the dire of Rhazal.

  My ferry went right through the n that spiraled from the Portal Stone, and I was briefly able to see it below me as I was carried closer to the Godbound. But that only sted a moment, and afterward, I was brought resting, floating before the face of Rhazal.

  Somehow, it was more horrifying up close, than it was from far away. Now I could see the utter indiffere held for the world, etched on its scaled features.

  Even I was only of minor io the titan.

  Out of the er of my eye, I could see Rhazal’s gargantuan right arm raise from its resting p a ruined keep tower. Ponderously, it extended a finger, and brought it upwards to hover to the side of my smoky terrace.

  God, a sialon alone was bigger than I was.

  LAY YOUR HAND UPON MINE, PRECURSOR.

  AND WE SHALL PARLEY, IN A MORE…FITTING MANNER.

  For a wild moment, I wao deny ‘He Who Denies’. I wao draw my Oninite bde, ig with The Stilnt Bde, and drive into the monstrous fihat hovered so o me. Why should I do anything this a horror wanted me to do? I had no idea what it wao do to me! For all I knew, Rhazal was about to eat my fug soul or something! I was tempted to take my y most powerful Skill, and hope it had some kind of titan-sying meism that I had just never discovered.

  But…

  A glint on the horizon caught my eye.

  Far off into the distand over the barest sliver of o that the murk had yet to reach, I saw it. Or rather her.

  A fsh of silvery moonlight, swallowed only moments ter by the ever-expanding gloom.

  Something told me…my ce had yet to e.

  I breathed deep, switched and cradled the haft of my borrowed staff into the crook of what was left of my left arm, and reached out with my right.

  The moment the fingers of my hand touched the scales of Rhazals, the world fell away.

  Into darkness.

  But…this was an almost familiar darkness. I had seen it only a few ho, after my fall.

  This…this almost looked like the bess of that realm I had spoken to Elys and the serpent in. But…more so, somehow.

  The gloom which surrounded me was more remi of Rhazal’s own smoke, over that of the nearly f darkness of earlier. It swirled all around me, charged with Aether baring the near st of Rhazals own suffog might.

  Was…I physically here? It felt like it, pared to my experieh Nehushtan and the moon. I was still wearing my battered and bloody Loyalist armor, and was still missing my arm. My eyesight was still cut in half, as well.

  Plus, Tzo’s staff had followed along. It was still cradled in the crook of my missing arm. I slowly transferred it bay good hand, looking around as I did so.

  What was going on? I had expected Rhazal’s booming voice to echo out from the gloom once again, but nothing had happened yet.

  I wasn’t expeg what did.

  The amber sto the apex of my temporary staff suddenly started to glow softly. Deep in the core of it, I saw a faint green light emawards.

  A voice pierced the silence.

  A familiar one.

  “Well, this is a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into,” A dry, sarcastic voice echoed out of the amber.

  I looked at the gleaming amber in shock. “Tzo…?” I murmured, suspicious despite myself.

  Was this a trick from Rhazal?

  “Indeed,” The voice of the Lich returned. “I see that you had the seake up my staff. A, did not have the seo reje invitation from a Camity into their own personal se of the cord.”

  “cord?” I muttered, before shaking it off. “How…are you talking to me? Aren’t you, you know, dead?” I winced a moment ter, already suspeg what his answer would be.

  Sure enough…

  “I’ve been dead since before you were born, child,” Tzo answered dryly. “But to answer your question, I have been banished bay phyctery. However, said phyctery is structed from the same soul-touched material as the keystone of my stave. Thus, through Aetherial synicity, I touch upoave lightly enough for my voice to be heard, here in the cord. Which you appear to be inside of. Physically.” He paused for a moment. “Holy, I thought only Greater Spirits could do that. I suppose you learn something new every day.”

  “And…you’re alright?” I asked hesitantly.

  “I’ll be fihe Liswered dismissively. “It’ll take me a few years to restitute myself, but that’s only a minor invenience. You,however, should worry about yourself. I’m not the o the mercy of a Camity.”

  “But…what’s the cord?” I tinued, still fused about what was going on.

  “No time,” Tzo said, abruptly serious. “I tell that he’s almost done shaping. I’ll do my best to guide you through this, but I ’t speak too often. In this pce, and in his own realm, the Godbound is even more deific than usual. If I act too often he’ll know. We’re both screwed then. Good luck, and remember I’m still here, Nathaniel.”

  At that, the glow from inside of the amber went dark, and with it went Tzo’s voice. I would have tried to ask him more questions about what was happening, but I was distracted by something else.

  Slowly, colors started to creep in through the Aether charged mists of the ‘cord’, whatever that was. First reds, and then greens and blues. And then yellows, and es, and purples until the full spectrum of the wheel paihe ethereal world I stood in. Then, ever more and more, the murk around me began to twist and shape itself, solidifying as it did.

  It…was almost like a world was being born around me.

  At first, I didn’t reize it what it was. But when I did…

  I slumped to my knees in disbelief, tears welling up in my eyes and streaming down my dirt and blood-encrusted face.

  This…this was Earth.

  I k on the asphalt of a familiar little two-ne road that cut through my neighborhood, bae in Texas. Overhead, a summer sun shined down on the world from a clear blue sky, warmio my very bones and casti hazes in the distance. Old, w-css family homes lined both sides of the street, painted and structed in dozens of different styles, each of them well-loved by their owners. A mix of green and brown grass taihe wns of ead every one of those homes, as the oppressive heat of the summer sun drove the turf to the brink of death despite the best efforts of myriad sprinklers. Trucks and SUV’s and sedans of varying sizes rested, lonely and abandoned, on the white crete of oh-so-many driveways. A hot breeze blew through the quiet, bringing with it a familiar tang, carried upon fallen leaves. I breathed deep, and held in the st of the old oaks pnted in the wns of my childhood neighborhood oh so long ago.

  I couldn’t stop the tears that ran in rivulets down my face, cutting a path through the blood and grime.

  Home.

  This…was my home.