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Story Time and I forgot which God/Goddess P'tola was based on.
“I feel that death is lurking around me. You tell me my dear friends that this is normal; after all we are neither dead nor alive. There has been a diffused presence bothering me for some time. The first time I felt it I did not particularly care. It was just when I brought you back to us, my beloved Ishaïa. Your tortured soul clinging to that decomposing body was screaming such hatred and such a vengeance that I heard you many miles away. When your hand ripped open your coffin and pierced the ground was the first time the presence manifested itself. I was too focused on what I was doing, perhaps because of overconfidence, and it was not until much later that I thought about this minor event. But then it did not stop there. This presence reappeared when we destroyed the Zircus. She was taunting me, hiding from my eyes, all the time lagging behind our attacks. Then nothing until the last few days starting from the time we invaded the Xzia Empire and our collision with that damned Kotoba fighter. Since this presence never leaves me, it makes me nervous, I know an enemy lurks around us and it is unbearable, my thoughts are confused and I do not quite put my plans in working order...” (, , , )
“What do you want us to do, Lord ?” Asked Ishaïa. “Would you like it if we were looking for the source of this presence?”
“Ishaïa, my beloved, you are right, we must do something, I already feel the impact that this presence has on your powers. Links with the zombies are weaker…”
“Sure, I'm distracted and it shows, if this continues I will not be able to keep my grip on them and they will be free. Okay, let us put all our forces on this to examine it with a fine tooth comb.”
Ishaïa, , and some zombies then went in search of the presence that was so disruptive to their leader. Meanwhile, Zejabel paced around in circles in the middle of a lost Xzia Empire home. Its former residents had become zombies and were standing in a corner, blood oozing from wounds and flies organizing for a feast of dead flesh. The necromancer groaned aloud, railing against this presence, shouting at her to show without delay. And his wish was granted. The zombie couple fell with a crash on the floorboards as both vulgar lifeless puppets. Zejabel saw the ties he had woven to these disappear before his eyes. Their souls left their bodies completely Zejabel saw two ghostly shapes fly away and go through the door.
“How so? You're leaving already?” Zejabel said opening the door.
Outside the atmosphere had nothing to do with the nice scenery of Xzia, large flames that did not give off heat surrounded the house and the courtyard that was in front. But most importantly was the palanquin, a huge one, carried by jackal-headed giants. Comfortably seated on a throne above him, a woman dressed as a goddess with bright, white eyes stared at Zejabel. The souls of the two zombies floated up to her, and then with a simple gesture she made them disappear.
“You're not easy to find Master of death,” she accused.
“What does that mean? Who are you and what is this?”
“The name that is given to me in the Emerald Desert is Ptol'a, goddess of death and guardian of the afterlife.”
“Oh! I guess, I bow before you then, your divinity,” said Zejabel in a sarcastic tone while bowing.
“Do not sneer, we have to talk and I'm of a nature to take me away from here soon, you're an anomaly and with a snap of a finger, I could solve this. So I beg you to keep yourself well in my presence.”
Feeling he really in front of him a divine being, Zejabel changed his mind and modified his behavior.
“You are right, my dear, excuse my outburst. So you're coming from ... the ... heaven? To punish me?”
Ptol'a tapped twice in her hands and a red cloud appeared within which the palanquin vanished. The only thing that remained was the goddess whose graceful silhouette stood in the smoke. She approached him and froze.
“No, I would not have come so far for such a trifle. I need a good reason to come for the gods cannot stay long in Guem. I'll be brief. You have got a powerful magic... but which annoys me deeply is that when you bring to life the dead people whose souls have yet to be freed to pass into the afterlife. I noticed the disturbances when you practice your magic and recently deceased persons awaken. I lost track of you multiple times but when you do return the dead to life, at least a semblance of life, I am immediately notified and I hear the song of the dead and their sad lament...”
“I see the problem. You know my zombies having a soul or not matters little to me. If you want I will let those who have...”
“That's a good decision, we understand, this is perfect. Do not think you can fool me or the next time you try I will destroy you.”
“Yes, yes, I understand no need to threaten me.”
“However... we might be able to find an arrangement, if you want me to condone your actions.”
“Really? Ah! Yes, most certainly to remain on good terms, and if I can make myself useful to your divinity, I do not see me refusing anything.”
“Once there was a great war between the gods of the desert. The forces against the coalition of Sol'ra I belonged. There were many battles, many deaths, including some in the ranks of the gods. My husband, a mortal with incredible powers was destroyed by the enemy. I kept his soul and I hid it before we lost the war and we were locked up for ages. This soul was locked in a crystal and locked in a subterranean under Mineptra. A totally inaccessible place for me.”
“You want me to get it back?”
“And place it into a new body.”
“If that is all, consider it already done.”
“This will not be easy; at this time of the crystal is guarded by Ahzred, the master of the royal guards of the desert, the god’s protector. And you can also imagine that a mortal body will be too commonplace to contain the power of the soul of my husband. No it needs a more powerful body... you would not know of one by any chance?
“Here... like that... no...”
“I'm a goddess, I know what happens into this world, Nehant’s body will do perfectly for my husband,” she said satisfied with its effect.
Zejabel did not like the way things were going. He had many plans with respect to Nehant’s body, but one of them was certainly not offering it to the husband of a goddess. But unfortunately he had no choice, he had already accepted.
“I will give you back your husband, but our market is now, I keep my small business and you take care of yours, also.”
“Well, I do not give anything for your actions.”
Ptol'a hands slapped together and everything returned to normal.
In the same place, sometime later, Ishaïa and Almaria had returned empty-handed from the hunt, Dahu and Zejabel gathered his troops around him before performing a strange ritual-based on crystals. He put them in a circle around them appear by a dome of magic. It was a borrowed Draconian ritual that used to create an inviolable area where the people inside could discuss in peace without fear of being spied on. There, the necromancer told his of meeting with Ptol'a and the discussion that followed.
“Lord Zejabel, it is a risky business, does this mean you simply can no longer animate zombies, which still contain the soul of the deceased?”
“Yes, I could, but it's a matter of principle, no one tells me what I should do, I have subdued and I got rid of the influence of Nehant, not to just fall under an impasse with someone else, and even less of a Goddess. But she will not let me in the slightest misstep without recover my soul and yours on the way.
“So you have to do according to her will my beloved,” says Almaria passing his clawed hand to the face dry skin Zejabel.
“Yes, and it will happen as she wishes, or almost,” said the necromancer with a wolfish grin...
Who would win in finger snapping contest Ptol'a or Q?
What will Nehant do if he finds someone else running around in his body?
and have the Nomad Gods ever gone to war with the Runic Gods?
Find out sometime in the future...
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Ty Boadicea for the awesome farewell gift. Now just to think up an avatar to go with it. Anyway, I'm still a Sap/Nomad/Pirates fan and user.
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