Book 3: Sound And Fury
Chapter 12 All In The Family
Sound and light passed through the abhorrent rip in the very substance of reality, what else might have slipped through that opening between the mortal world and the realm of lost dreams?
The half-real imaginings of a mad mind could take any form, only the terrible witch who created it could say… And he was too busy smugly gloating over the divine dy of Healing, Dana, the Balm in Man’s Suffering.
“Do you have my pound of divine flesh ready?” He demanded in a voice of cold edges and harsh pnes. “I can overlook all your whack-ass curses and bull-shittery aimed at me; but you struck my son…” He snapped at the furious divine.
“You spped him into another world, because you got pissy…” He snarled. “You’re really lucky I have friends who were able to help him get back, or we would be having a very different discussion right now. The same discussion your boy War and I had, not too long ago...”
One of her minions under the pavilion found the stones to speak up… after a moment of cold and brittle silence. Caduceus the Physician sputtered mely, from behind the dubious safety of a golden silk curtain. “Filthy… Thing! You dare address the dy Dana!”
Slowly, Gary’s eyes found the divine Physician’s… Whatever the lord of Medicine and Surgery saw there was enough to send him scuttling back behind his flimsy golden drape.
The musician smiled and reached his hand out to the shimmering cobweb of fragile ce that was still barely holding the veil aperture open and keeping it from shredding entirely. He halted, a scant instant from touching the barrier and sighed happily at the reaction of his witnesses.
Dana and the gathered divines recoiled in horror and fear as he threatened to cross the veil. “You aren’t sure that Morrigan’s gift perished with her, are you…”
He ughed bitterly at the gathered divinities and withdrew his reaching hand. “You’re wise to be frightened, it was my gift, all along… She just unlocked the deep dark pce that I had it stashed in.” Gary giggled madly and did a little dance of glee for the gathered entities.
Arrayed behind him, a small army of men with the same face stood, watching the thing unfold through a peephole in the universe.
“Gang, these are most of the gods, fae, spirits and divines that make up the local pantheon…” He said with a false note of cheer in his voice, still facing the gathered divinities.
“Most of them are pretty cool… Even if they did knuckle under to Healer and agree to help her curse me.”
An uncomfortable movement shuddered through the group on the divine side of the veil, as some entities attempted to move farther from the opening.
“Pantheon, meet the Tarots… My brothers… and sisters.” He chuckled wryly at the divines. “They don’t know the whole story yet, just like most of you, so I thought we could all sit and listen.” His gaze fell back on Dana, still gring at him sullenly from her pavilion, reclined on a golden divan.
“Dana, the golden bimbo, over there hasn’t said anything, because I won’t allow her to… In the pce where she is currently trapped, I outrank her.” He announced to the Garies behind him in an offhand way that brought even more rage into the silent goddess’ eyes. “Even gods must bow in the face of true power.”
He turned his back on the divine audience and smiled at the Garies. “Sorry gang, you guys are walking in on a long running feud between me and a few of these gods… But I promise, you’ll see where your own agendas and problems come in soon. It’s all reted.”
He smiled and shrugged at his gathered clones, or whatever.
“I’m not your leader or anything, but I am the only one who knows the full story. I know, because I pried the answers from the ones who did this to us, the ones who created all of you.” He smiled coldly and chuckled.
“And then I murdered the ever living shit out of them.” His mad giggle of delight sent a noticeable shudder through the deities behind him, across the void. “I totally sughtered three gods, several dozen great fae, hundreds of lesser immortals and an entire race of deathless, haunted dirtbags, all on one sweet summer evening.”
He winked at the gathered men and women on the wn. “I blew them all into atomic dust; right after the gods in question had their clerics murder me, to conceal their crimes.”
He squatted down on the wn, heedless of the oppressive silence that had fallen over the formerly pleasant garden. Strange, voiceless whispers echoed from the hole in reality on the wn, gasps of pain, pleasure, delight and despair surrounded the awful thing, wordless mumblings and soundless ughter…
Gary turned to casually address the divines again, careless of their battered dignity. “This is a show of power for my brothers and sisters, so they will just accept what I’m about to tell them. I’m using you as a tool for my own pns and schemes, Dana. You are a pawn in my game now.”
He smiled at all the gods and goddesses gathered across the veil. “This is also an unambiguous threat. Don’t fuck with me or my family any more… Any of you. I’m back and things are not going to continue this way, any longer.” He announced in a clear, sharp tone.
“I’m going to settle accounts with Dana and be done with this.”
The whole pce felt awful and dismal; the sensation of a storm about to roll over a ship at sea towered over the keside inn, forcing the witnesses to breathe in shallow gasps.
“Dana, I absolutely killed the gods of Craft, Order and War. I bsted them into their constituent elements and wiped them from this realm entirely.” He smiled at the stricken goddess and sighed.
“They totally deserved it… And worse. Did you know that those three were conspiring to help Morrigan, in her mad pn to exterminate humanity from this world?”
He waved his hand in a careless gesture of forbearance. “You may speak.”
“Filthy lies!” She gasped a moment ter, nearly slipping from her couch of silken damask and golden lotus wood. “It cannot be!”
“It’s true… and I think you’ve suspected the truth, deep inside for a long time. I see it now, in your eyes.” Gary’s voice warmed slightly, almost becoming gentle.
“Why do you think you found War so abhorrent in person, despite your love for him? He was denying his own nature to further Morrigan’s plot, that’s what shrieked against your essence, when he drew near or spoke to you…”
“Impossible… War was devoted to his battle to preserve the remnants of humanity…” Dana gasped softly, covering her face with her left hand.
“Was he?” Gary asked softly. “I don’t know what Morrigan promised him… Or what he and his friends thought they would gain, but they gambled and lost.” He smiled, a wan and bitter thing, but a smile nonetheless.
“They still exist, you know… Living and breathing as mortals on another world, take comfort in that… Mortal life is its own form of immortality; in the fullness of eternity, you will meet him again.”
“Really? He still… exists?” Dana gasped weakly. “Where have you imprisoned him, you filthy wretch?”
“Only the Devourer knows where they were sent and they never speak.” Gary answered firmly.
“Not exactly true, my boy.” A warm, rich and mellow voice spoke up from the wn by Gary’s ankles. A tiny brown jackalope sat there, nibbling a cowslip leaf with obvious delight in his big brown bunny eyes.
The god of Beasts did a little joyful hippity hop around the wn and settled back on his haunches to survey the entire scene.
“You always surprise me, boy… that takes some doing after all these endless ages.” Beast muttered with satisfaction. “I chat with the Devourer all the time, though they seldom reply. They are much more of a thinker than a talker.”
Beast nodded his thanks, when Gary set a pte of veggies and sad greens down for the divine essence of all living beings, everywhere, all the time. Raiding the buffet table to suck up to a legit bigshot was just a smart move.
“Your boy, War is living his life on the Deadworld, Dana… Just across the veil from this realm, but so very far removed from all magic and our touch. He’s a great horned owl, at the moment and is really doing well.” Beast muttered around a baby carrot.
“A few more lifetimes and maybe we can let him start migrating back here. With your help and support, he might re-enter the pantheon in a thousand years, more or less.”
Beast turned around to eye the gathered mortals, still nibbling away at something leafy and apparently, delicious. “That would still require him to achieve divinity, but he did that once before.”
“And you all…” He muttered amiably at the Garies. “What do we do with all of you? You all belong together, fragments of a single whole; but you no longer fit together at all.” He compined mildly.
“Entropy wants you all dissolved into your constituents and re-made, next time the universes implode… But that’s their answer to everything; fortunately for you, I am the god of Beasts, so you are mine. I am excited to see where this leads and what you come up with.”
He yawned massively for such a tiny creature and hopped in a small circle at Gary’s feet.
“Interacting with mortals in this way is novel and exciting, but I am stressing your reality a little, Gary. Pick me up and tuck me away in your coat, please… I want to try taking a nap.”
“Sure thing, buddy.” Gary mumbled to the little antlered bunny, as he slipped the warm ball of fur into his jacket. “This is the god of Beasts… He’s more of a force of nature, a true god of all life, everywhere and everywhen, throughout space, time and a number of more esoteric dimensions and concepts… He’s always been a good friend… To all of us.” He remarked to the silent spectators on both sides of the torn veil between worlds.
“Now you’re just kissing my ass.” Beast mumbled from deep inside Gary’s coat. “Get back to work, I think they’re all listening… now.”
Gary turned his attention back to the crowds and ughed, a short, mirthful and joyous thing that resounded off the mountains and rang on the ke surface. “I am a syer of gods and demons, a mad witch and the Fool. Any questions?”
“I have a few!” Sir Pangbourne shouted from the patio.
“How? Why? How did you return to life, what caused the schism between the gods and for fuck sake, what the hell did you do to the blessed dy Dana?!”
“That is a long, weird and absolutely crazy story… Gd you asked!” Gary replied with a wink at the flustered lord. He paused and stroked his chin for a moment. “I really considered pying ‘The Clones of Doctor Funkenstein’ one more time and leaving it at that; but I’m not that cruel.”
“Gary.” Shai’s voice rose from the crowd, stilling his mirth at Pangbourne’s expense. “Get on with it.”
/
“Once upon a time, the universes were busily wheeling in their endless orbits, barren and empty of sentient life…” Gary smiled at the gathered listeners and sighed. “Then it happened; a being achieved awareness, just a tiny spark of realization in the endless night.”
“That little spark, kindled by some proto amoeba or something, had just enough awareness to realize it existed. From a tiny mote, we began… Sentient life is the confgration that swept over everything, everywhere and continues to this day.” He waved to encompass everything, everywhere. “Life, sentient life gives depth, breadth and literal breath to the universe.”
A long, nearly silent pause lingered over the keside inn and garden, until someone shouted. “Yeah?”
Gary coughed and resumed his tale. “Most of all we provide Dreams. Dreams are the motive force of the universe… Well technically it’s the interaction of mortal Will, as we struggle to impose our ideas and desires on the physical universe but dreams sound more poetic.”
“When a mortal strives against their limitations, or peers into the night sky to wonder what stars are made of; that person is fueling the entire universe, just a little. Stories, poems, art and literature, cave paintings and pys on the stage…” He grinned and twirled in pce, before he continued.
“And of course music. The arts are all universal among sentients, in some form or other, even in worlds devoid of magic... like the one we came from. Sentient life churns the engine of reality and causes the entire universe to exist, through our aspirations, struggles and our dreams.”
“But, of course, every engine needs maintenance and a little care, if you want it to run smoothly. That’s where The trees come in, the trees and the spirits that dwell in them, unseen by most mortals.”
Gary yawned and stretched carefully, to avoid disturbing the sleepy bunny in his jacket. “The handmaidens of Beast, the dryads are the custodians of sentient life, nurturing and sheltering it, wherever it begins.” He said, nodding to a rge contingent of scantily cd and nude women, hanging out on the periphery of the divine gathering.
“In every world where minds exist, there are trees, where there are trees, dryads can touch, even if only lightly. Their root systems span the endless ether, from every world and domain.” He sighed happily, while skritching the sleepy jackalope behind his antlers.
“The dreams of mortals percote through their roots and diffuse through the universe, providing the energy that keeps everything ticking along, under the guidance of a few universal powers, like Beast, Entropy and the Devourer.”
He shrugged and grinned madly at the crowds.
“They have a hands off approach to individual realms, mostly, just because there are so many out there… Mostly, no one universe in particur really matters in the grand scheme of things. Mostly, local gods from the local pantheons manage things on this level, that’s why the pantheon is shitting their robes right now…” He turned to face his awful tear in the veil. “Right, divines?”
“Very much so!” Marduk answered cheerily from somewhere on the other side. “It’s pretty unpleasant over here!”
Darkly amused chuckles rose from the Garies at the thought of discomfited divines, however such a thing came about.
“This lovely world we are standing on is special… Though, in the big picture, it’s just another rock, spinning through the never. This is the world of the fae, their race developed naturally here and achieved their own immortality ages ago… uncounted ages ago. The fae grew bored and rgely wandered away, across the universes, seeking diversions and entertainments among the endless worlds in the void.”
“Long ago, so long ago that when humanity was scratching their butts and picking fleas, this world was ancient, forgotten and almost abandoned. A few of the fae stuck around, others came by from time to time to visit their old home, all in all a pretty unremarkable tale, as the greater universe sees things.” He shrugged.
“Meanwhile, our dead, magicless world drifted nearby, as such things are measured between worlds. Earth was just drifting unattended, without any gods or spirits of its own, thanks to an unlucky quirk of our old world’s composition. It’s something to do with too much iron and lead in the periodic table for magic to flourish and a magnetic field that keeps spirit entities from forming properly. I’m far from an expert.” He gave another shrug and grin.
“The dryads were bored, so they toyed with the closest thing to a sapient species on our world, our primitive, monkey ancestors. They nurtured us into an actual thinking race for reasons of their own and allowed us to develop naturally from there on our own… Which was probably a mistake.”
“I’m impressed!” Ward said cheerily, as he stepped through the hole in the veil, into the mortal world. “You covered the first several trillion years of reality and the rise of humanity up to the stone age rather well… Now let me take over.”
“Hey gang, a few of you met Ward over the st little while… He’s one of us…” Gary grinned like an idiot and ughed. “And also the god of Death, locally.”
When the outraged mutters and disbelieving grumbles finished, Gary grinned again. “See? That’s why I put on this little vaudeville show… and to humiliate Dana. I kinda feel a little bad about that now.” He didn’t look like he felt badly about it, though… Not at all.
“Sit down bro. Let me take over.” Ward insisted. “Just to be clear, I’m the god of Death, Vengeance, Dark Secrets and the immortal dryad of the Golden Fig grove… He always leaves off the figs!” Ward compined mirthfully at his retreating brother’s back.
“I’m also the Moon, as you Tarots consider these things.” That sent some rumbles and whispers through the Garies.
“Anyway,” Ward grumbled merrily at the crowds on both sides of the veil. “We dryads kinda adopted the earliest humans… As our pets.” He shrugged and gave the Garies a challenging gre, daring them to get stroppy about it. “Because humans can live on worlds with little, or even no magic, we spread them to those worlds to move things along there…” Ward ughed sadly.
“That’s where the dryads really struck it rich with us, humans from earth. Humans and humanoids have developed all over the multiverse, more or less independently. All kinds of humanoids… but we are the Deadworlders, to the rest of the universe.”
A few bnk looks spread in the mob of Garies, so he expined patiently. “Remember what the Fool said about Dreams… How they are integral to the way the rger universe functions? Art is magic and magic is an art, they are interchangeable to the universe at rge. It’s the creative impetus and the act of creating something that makes the magic happen; whether by spell, mind or muscle. Humans can’t help but create art wherever they go, so they get along fine in the kind of worlds where most sentients struggle to survive.”
“That’s right, the dryads touch all worlds, even those still struggling to become mature, prime worlds. As we nurtured humanity, you became… we became, more than they expected, more than they pnned or hoped for.” Ward chuckled darkly to himself.
“I have access to a lot of info, much of which would be so incomprehensible to you that even trying to expin might drive some of you over the bend and into madness.… So I kinda see this problem from a different perspective, as a former human.”
He gnced up at the moons and smiled. “Here is the root and branch of the problem: Humans are common throughout the universes. We appear in almost all of the low magic worlds, because the dryads spread us to those worlds, since we reliably thrive almost anywhere. In the process, a few of us slipped over into this world, the world of fairy, of the fae.” He paused to let that really sink in, and to swipe a little something from a nearby buffet table.
“Dryads can only really manifest on this world and worlds like it; the very, very few worlds where fae magic exists naturally.” Ward sighed and shook himself all over, as if preparing to dive into deep, cold water.
“I mentioned that earth lies close to this world, that is more true than anyone outside this little gathering knows. Our world and this world are inextricably linked, orbiting each other in a symbiotic retionship… A very special retionship; one strengthened by the gods of this world, so that they could take humans as worshippers.”
Displeased muttering and sharp shushings whispered from the divine side, as Ward paused to savor his wine. “Gods need worshippers to truly exist. When the fae wandered off, the local gods were in danger of fading away, forgotten by their own children. Meanwhile, Earthling humanity was just hanging out, with no spiritual veil of its own, just raw-dogging reality the hard way. It didn’t take much effort to finagle a way into the lost and desperate dreams of humanity, as we wondered what the hell the universe was even doing, out there.”
A few angry grumbles were drowned out by the giggles, as Marduk and a few of the cooler divines expined ‘raw-dogging’ to the un-hip.
“Once that connection was made, humanity and the gods of this pce adopted each other, even though neither could really interact, beyond the world of dreams.” He nodded at the divines again and shrugged.
“Naturally, it wasn’t too long before the first human slipped through a gap in the veil between our twinned worlds, becoming the first of the druids, the special children of the dryads. We slip through the veil, following the occult, interdimensional root systems of the dryads themselves and that’s how we arrived here from earth… Our old home is known as the ‘Dead World’ to most of those who travel the veil regurly. It has a pretty awful reputation for being inhospitable to any magical being that goes there.”
“Earth humans, the Deadworlders escaped our world through mundane, scientific means a century or two after we died, leaving Earth empty. Those humans, and the very rare isekai from earth are called the Deadworlders, because even in worlds without any magic at all, if magic is possible there, we will manifest it.” He ughed long and hard at the gathered fae, gods and spirits, who mostly looked like he’d just pulled out some embarrassing family gossip.
“If a world fails to manifest a magical field of its own or it’s too weak to sustain itself, the local pantheon will… lets just say, Deadworlders have a reputation for being chaotic elements, wherever they appear… and the isekai from earth, doubly so.” Ward paused and chuckled.
“It’s a lot, I know. We have some really weird stuff going on…”
/
“There’s a lot of weird stuff going on…” Lord Argent compined to the countess’ lifeguard, who seemed to be paying his demand to see her dyship, very little actual attention.
“Lord Douch’e, dy Trewny was explicit. She is not to be disturbed.” Malus grumbled as politely as he could, which admittedly left some room for improvement. “You may not pass.”
“Those… people are up to something, over by the ke…” He sputtered mely. “Some form of witchcraft is unsettling the local wildlife and livestock!”
“Yes, my lord… I hear the birds and critters singin’ his tune. Only a great fool would attempt to approach that pce right now, my lord. Just as only a very great fool would be reachin’ for that door.”
The middle aged lord withdrew his hand awkwardly, as the hard eyed and awfully ugly warrior shifted in his well worn, but serviceable armor. “Let her dyship know that I wish to consult her at her earliest convenience…” The marshal of Foresthome grumbled sourly.
“Lord Douch’e…” Countess Trewny spoke firmly, standing in the doorway to her private parlor, the partially opened door still obscuring the room’s contents. “Sergeant Malus no doubt informed you that I am, and remain, indisposed. Urgent matters require my undivided attention, my lord…. Matters you are distracting me from.” She nodded once, curtly and closed the door with a quiet but definitive click.
/
