Chapter 126: The Secret of Will and Aura

Jiaoying had often considered herself too dignified to drink before the day had even started.

Even after her divorce, she had never fallen quite that low.

She expected that it was a line she would never cross. She knew too many drunk old knights as it stood already.

That was, until she heard the most bat-shit insane story of her entire life right at her dining room table.

It was all that it took for her to throw any semblance of decorum.

Jiaoying brought her mug to her lips again and swallowed a mouthful of oaky liquor.

As a slow burn traveled down her throat, she tried once again to get her bearings around the situation.

“So… Your dad, or I guess mom for some of you… Called all of you from your beds and had you meet him in my garden. At which point, he told you about their birth, what happened to the Zoha, and how he ended up imprisoned in the black depths.”

“”””Yes.””””

“And then they said they wanted you to fight the old ones… as the Four Horsemen. And then they gave you fancy armor for yourselves and your horses that he apparently made with the help of the Queen of Fae. Who is Everett’s real mother.”

“Solomon got his old armor remade. It hurt him a lot.” Dakota murmured without looking up.

“It looks really badass though… Almost as cool as my new sword.” Everett agreed.

Jiaoying rubbed her temples. “And… He gave you new names, said you were basically half children of the Outer Dark with some sort of indirect lineage ties to the Zoha… then he left this book behind for you to read in addition to all of your new necklaces.”

“”””Yes.”””” The riders nodded in unison.

Jiaoying blinked. “…And you haven’t opened it why??”

The siblings really only had one simple answer. They knew in their bones that once they opened that book, everything was going to change for them. Even more than it already had.

As much as they all wanted to know what was inside… they also had their reservations about having their entire knowledge of the world suddenly upended.

Even worse, what if they had questions that needed answering? Eir’Vael was not currently in a position to tell them anything more than they already had.

Impatient, Yari reached for the book in front of her.

Nila placed her hand over her Aunt’s just before she could take it.

“W-Wait… there’s… one thing you should know, Auntie.”

Yari believed this might have been the softest she’d ever heard her niece sound in her entire life. “Okay… and what is that, dear?”

“…Eir’Vael… they… w-well, they made the insinuation that… my mother was still alive.”

Everyone at the table could see the way that the news hit Yari.

Her body became rigid. Her pupils rattled around like dice in an empty cup as hushed words left her lips.

“N-No… that’s not… It can’t be, I saw…”

Yari almost bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She picked up the book quickly and opened it.

She began reading aloud from the very first page. Everyone at the table listened quietly as she spoke.

The early pages were Eir’Vael’s letters to the siblings.

He told them, all of them, what he wanted for them. To be happy. To protect each other. To be strong and avenge their ancestors.

And then the secrets started to flow off the pages.

Eir’Vael heard many things while he was trapped underground. He may have been stuck in one solitary place, but his extraordinary senses allowed him to hear things all across Komen.

This realm was much, much older than most of the populace generally thought. And it had known more inhabitants in it’s day than just humanity.

May’Afar The Redeemer, as he came to be known, conspired to create a powerful civilization that would revere him as a god.

But he was… unpleased with the results he got over the years.

The races he introduced into Komen weren’t strong enough for his liking. If they were adept in magic, then their bodies were typically brittle. If they had strong bodies, their magical capacity was low, and they tended to be giant idiots.

And above all, none of them could use a power as unique as Will. That seemed to be May’Afar’s greatest gripe of all.

He gave each generation around 1,500 years to grow. To adapt.

When they showed no promise, he eradicated all of civilization to the very last. And then, he began again.

The three traitors of the Zoha race who stood beside him watched as he committed these dark deeds. They aided him in whatever way he required, without question, and without compromise. Later, a fifth joined their ranks. And there was talk that one day, there would be a sixth.

He claimed they would anoint themselves as a perfect family. One who commanded a legion of great and terrible warriors capable of fulfilling some grand destiny.

Tens of thousands of years went by before the Redeemer had the idea for Komen’s current incarnation.

Perhaps what he needed more than anything, was not a single race to rise above the others. no, that was foolish, shallow thinking. What he needed was a race begotten from all of the others.

He attempted his own iteration of selective breeding. Opening rifts to other worlds that he considered instrumental in fulfilling his plans.

He would call his new race Titan-Bloods. His desire was to blend together the strengths of all of his chosen races, and within a few millennia, he would have a race of cunning humanoids as strong and fierce as trolls, but as talented at magic as fae, and as long-lived as elves.

But he recognized the potential jeopardy in crafting such a race. The humanity within the titan-bloods would never be something that he could breed out. He had seen it.

Their sentiment, their passion for others, and their talks of morality would become an impediment to his plans if they were ever to learn of what exactly was done to create them.

Feeling betrayed, they would revolt against him. He knew that to be a certainty.

And so, the Redeemer made two choices.

The first was that he and his family would not yet allow themselves to be revered by the populace. They would be seen as a mere fable.

At a moment of their choosing, they would arise to save their race of titans from calamity and become figures of worship not through instruction, but idolization and gratitude.

The second choice was that, in the event of mass rebellion, the Redeemer needed a way to put down the populace quickly and start again if need be.

This was how he came to his most horrific idea yet.

May’Afar traveled to the very root of Komen, the lifeblood of it’s inhabitants, and it’s mana, and tainted it with the essence of himself and his fellow deathless.

With this simple action, he damned every single knight and mage that Komen would ever produce.

Everyone who drank from the waters.

Everyone who ate food from the land.

Even those who breathed the air.

If May’Afar wished it, they would lose all of their cultivation instantaneously, and all of that power would return to the Deathless.

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