Scarrabus were. Then they experienced true terror on a racial scale that sent ripples of fear infecting all ogarim that walked this land.
The ogarim knew spirits well and saw the greatest as intelligent beings no different to beings of flesh, treating them with as much respect as they granted any other sentient creature. They knew of gods too, beings made powerful by leeching life’s magic from lesser daemons and primitive races that worshiped them on strange worlds. It came as no great surprise to discover that the godlike hive minds of the Scarrabus too worshipped an even greater progenitor-being, but this entity was vast and terrible beyond anything the ogarim had ever dreamed of.
The Scarrabus hive minds were obsessed with a singular goal to the exclusion of all else – the parasites called their god-beast across the void between realms to come to them, to feed and spawn, to devour life-bearing worlds whole, then to feast on the beating crystal hearts of those realms’ suns, and leave the dying husk behind to collapse into dark and dense nothingness…and it was now fully aware of the ogarim.
The peaceful giants were beyond horrified. The sea of magic gave birth to suns, enormous power flowing into their hearts to make them beat with heat and light – granting the realms around them life, whose struggles and growth fed back into the sea of magic itself, enriching all in an endless cycle of life. This natural cycle was being broken to feed that entity’s endless hunger.
As the stars were snuffed out one by one, coming ever closer to their home realm, ogarim searchers went out among the realms searching for answers and allies. For the first time in their history the ogarim went to war. The gathered host of their race worked a great magic, sacrificing lives to create a Shroud around their world to stop daemons from the Far Realms coming here unless summoned from within. Then they formed an army with what few strange allies they could gather and moved from realm to realm rooting out Scarrabus queens wherever they were located, burning them and their armies of enslaved daemons with overwhelming magic and bitter regret. They were victorious on the battlefield but had forgotten a danger lurked in their very home: a young Scarrabus queen had been left behind in this realm to die, but it lingered on and had been laying eggs ever since they brought back their Eldest, and those ancient ogarim had no idea it had been learning how to use the Eldest’s magic.
<Pain> <So much pain> The ogarim keened with loss and regret and withdrew from all mental contact.
Another time… soon. You must understand more.
My head pounded as the images faded. But the horror remained with me. The Scarrabus were a far larger threat than I had ever dreamed of. I leaned against the wall, panting. “Sweet Lady Night, how do we fight something that eats worlds and the hearts of stars?”
It is contained. Do not worry, it answered, though it was in fact deeply worried itself. It seemed to worry about everything. I now knew enough of the ogarim to decipher that. Worry about the Scarrabus queen. It must be destroyed before it can free their god-beast. Now that you know the history you understand the import of this.
I licked my lips. “Free it? From where?”
Imprisoned below stone and bone and bound in chains of gods. My stomach lurched and fell away. I knew exactly where it meant.
Setharis.
Chapter 15
The revelation that my entire world was merely a bright island in a vast, dark sea, and that Setharis was the enemy’s real target in this realm sent me reeling. The stone underfoot began to vibrate, a deep and distant ominous rumble that sent spikes of worry through the ogarim’s thoughts.
Enough. I am pained by the memory of a time become dust, and the river of now runs low. The Eldest held out a huge furry grey hand to examine my own tainted limb.
My grandmother had barely moved and I realised that for her mere seconds had passed while I had explored the ogarim’s racial history and personal thoughts. It really was a far more efficient method of communication, one where nothing could possibly be misunderstood.
What did I have to lose? I pulled off my right glove and stepped forward to let the ogarim examine the hard black metal scales covering my skin. I was tall for a human, but even sitting on the floor it was still my standing height, and my hand was as a child’s in its own.
It felt strange to have so much trust in a non-human creature I had just met, especially one that could rip me apart with its bare hands as easily as I tore off cooked chicken legs. And yet I knew it on an intimate level beyond all but one past lover, and it knew me from our mixing of thoughts. There was no capacity for deception in its mental make-up. Oh, it withheld information of course, as did I. The ogarim knew what privacy was and respected the inner workings of a mind.
It carefully lowered my hand and then looked to Angharad. The ether buzzed with mental power and she swayed on her feet, crystal eyes closed as her lips twitched in pain. Then it clambered to its feet and walked right through the back wall, which rippled and solidified behind it as I stared in puzzlement.
“Is that it?” I gasped. “It just up and leaves without a word?” “Be quiet, conceited wretch,” she snapped. “Show the respect it is due. Their ways are not our ways. The Eldest leaves because it must. Ye are not the most important thing in this world and ye should be honoured it chose to bestow even a portion o’ its vast knowledge upon ye.”
My hand twitched, wanting to be around her throat again. Showed how much she knew – I was actually pretty damn important these days. “What did it say about my hand?”
“It is a spiritual taint as opposed to a natural one. A fragment of malign spirit grows within your flesh, and it will devour ye entire unless dealt with quickly.”
I flexed my hand, forcing the fingers closed against hard skin and black iron plates. The taint had indeed taken root where the broken shards of my spirit-bound blade Dissever pierced my flesh when the traitor god shattered it. I could still feel a fragment of that dark daemonic spirit in the back of my mind. “And how do we remove this spiritual taint?”
“We cannot. It has become a natural part of your blood and bone by now. But there is another who can…”
There was always a price for her help, always an angle that furthered her own goals. “Out with it.”
“To force the spiritual taint from your flesh ye must form a pact with a greater spirit. Only another spirit can expel it.”
I laughed. “Of course that’s the only way. I knew it would all come back to your stupid fucking ritual in the end.” I pointed to the ragged scars cutting down my cheek and neck. “The last time you tried to force that nonsense upon me you did this. Why should I ever trust you?”
She sneered. “Because ye have no choice. Ye were a weakling and a cowardly boy who ran from his fears instead o’ facing them like a man. You still are.”
Half a year ago she might have been right. Now I was trying hard to be different.
“Think o’ the power, Edrin! The Queen o’ Winter will fill ye with her might. It is a great honour.”
“I piss on honour and glory. I’d rather hack my own hand off,” I said, moving towards the stairs from which we had come.
“Who do you think ye are to insult me in my own hold?” she demanded. “Ye are every bit as ungrateful and wretched as your mother was. I smell your fear and know ye crave the power necessary to defeat the Scarrabus. Without me ye will never achieve anything but witnessing all ye care about burn to ash.”