Comedown

Eiriol

***

Peter Boyd. Human. Sixteen years of age. Former slave. Strong physique. Lacks proper martial and magical training. Inexperienced in combat. Cowardly and meek.

That was not what I just witnessed.

<<They are all exceptional.>> I said to no one in particular, though the twins heard me. <<For humans.>> They heard me as well. And as always, they threw scorn my way upon hearing of a tongue foreign to their ears. They- rightfully so, assumed the words were whips that lashed out at their prominence.

It was an object of bemusement to any elf. Like watching the strange behavior of a dog chasing its own tail.

Utter foolishness. But also amusing.

Some of them, however, held traces of speculative fear in their gazes. Including the dear twins.

<<Is this the Champion's way? To make monsters out of meek men?>> Corym shuddered.

<<What would be your alternative?>> I chortled. <<To kill and raise every man he met? To destroy everything he sees?>>

<<Of course, you're eager.>> His sister spat. <<To spin the Champion and this boy into your web.>>

<<I would nor could do something of the sort!>> I huffed. <<Champion or no Champion, my job is to teach and nothing more. It seems the two of you have yet to learn that even still. That all we can do is, as they say, sit back and enjoy the show.

<<It shall not take long.>>

***

Amun.

***

A part of this was nice. Academia. Being with those my biological age as I learned about magic. That I loved.

I had grown close to many of my classmates as a result. The times like these, when we sat around and enjoyed each other's company were valuable to me. It was one of the times I chose to sit back and smell the roses.

But.

The sense of confinement I was still feeling despite my coming of age, that I hated.

That, I was tired of.

My wanderlust was getting to me. It had been getting to me for years- for over a decade now and counting.

However, staying in this place wasn't without its merits.

Studying at the Bodhi Tree not only led to intellectual growth, my evolution, and more allies; but it also led to war. And like most things, I considered war neither good nor bad; just nor evil.

War simply was.

It was an inevitability of life. The only differences between animals fighting over territory or mating rights and sentient beings fighting over borders or transgressions were the scale of destruction and the forced involvement of bystanders.

A fair trade-off for being the dominant species.

Humanoid tribes dominated entire swaths of land. It was only fair for war to touch the heart of their tribes in return.

Having no enemies on my radar, I assumed war wouldn't come until my guild had been created. A slight misstep on my part, perhaps. But now, I had no choice but to start making plans and putting them into action.

Luckily, I got the perfect time to do so when Els returned from his encounter and the party collectively decided to retire for the day. Like many of them, I turned away from the midday sun to tuck myself in my room with Zakira for the rest of the day.

With a bit of her help, I spent hours toiling around in Terranaut, Lapland, and BluLine to recreate the perfect moon for my future followers to dwell in next year.

And then I got down to business.

"Alright." I sighed. "So, I'm gonna tell everyone later, but I want you to be the first to know."

"Okay." Zakira turned to me with beaming eyes at once and grasped my hands firmly.

"Long story short, there was some sort of ploy involved in me fighting that dragon. The emperor of Polaris was standing in the courtyard when I returned. He was rude to me, so I was rude back. One of his dogs threatened me, so I threatened him back. Twice." I winked. "And now, the humans of Polaris think I'm evil and dangerous."

"Well." She let out a curious sigh. "That's not surprising."

"Yeah." I nodded. "And I wouldn't be surprised if they try and do something about it; either now or later, but I'm not going to sit around and just wait for it to happen. Doyle is afraid of me now."

"Awe!" She melted in place. "But he's so nice!"

"Yeah." I sighed again. "It does hurt a little, but I'm still going to use it to my advantage and find out what we'll be doing next semester. After that, I'm going to start accepting loyalty pledges for my guild and begin training our classmates until we evolve. We'll be training with my undead. Every day for the next six months."

"Pshh!" she waved the matter off. "That won't be hard."

"And learning," I added with a sly grin. "You'll be doing a lot of learning."

If Zakira had bunny ears, they would've drooped down at the sound of my words. Her eyes, dark burgundy in the twilight of my room, looked to be on the verge of tears while she slowly shook her head. As if to silently say. 'Anything but that.'

But I only smiled and nodded. "Yes. On top of that, I'll be introducing my undead to everyone and have them work around the Cove full time. I'll also be sending a few of them to the Darkworld to find some mithral and adamantine so I can start crafting things for everyone. One of those things will be a holy symbol for you." I paused to give her a warm smile. "Have faith in me when I say the truth will soon be revealed.

"But more than anything, I need you to keep praying." I grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently. "Next year, when we go to the south, your and everyone else's mission will be to gather allies. Subordinates, minions, friends, a family- whatever you want to call them. Gather people." I shook her again. "I don't care if they're human, vampire, goblin, or what. If they want to join us, if they want to be free, we'll show them the Light of the Moon."

"You all will educate them as I have educated you. They'll learn how to protect themselves. How to think for themselves. And we will protect them from those who think like the humans of Polaris. We'll do the same to those we meet during our work studies. And if Polaris wants to go to war." I sighed. "We will."

"But you don't want to?"

"I don't." I shook my head. "But I will I have to."

"I don't either." She clasped my hand in hers before giving me a warm, fanged smile. "But, I already told you. I'll follow you anywhere."

"Thank you." I leaned in to tap our foreheads together. "I am a God," I whispered. "I am your God, Zakira. I'll have proof of such a claim, come my evolution. But have faith in me when I say it's true."

"I do." She wrapped her arms around me.

"The power of the gods comes from faith," I said, hugging her back. "As the one with the most faith in me, you will one day evolve into my first Cleric. That, I promise."

Her embrace tightened at that point, forcing me to pause for a short moment. "Change." I gasped, forcing her to reel back in confusion.

"Knowledge." I continued. "Freedom. These are my Domains. Dictated by how I've lived. They are represented by the Moon."

I palmed her shoulders once again to whisper. "But there is also Twilight. It embodies the reflection one experiences at the end of a journey, be it a grand adventure or one's life. It represents the time of rest and festivities that comes after work. It embodies mystique and uncertainty due to its ability to conceal. And, it represents… Gloom."

"I'd like Opal to pray to Twilight," I said. "But of course, I want her to choose for herself."

***

Doyle.

***

There was an eerie sense of peace in the acorn now that the awaited day had come and gone. Even among us teachers and instructors, the air was stiff with a mundane silence that teetered the edge of boredom.

It wasn't that Samson and Kaolinite's fights weren't up to par, it was just their fighting styles were things we'd all seen hundreds of times. All blades and little magic.

So too was Scarlett's display of the conjuration magic her family was known for. It was worth watching, but nothing that made any discussion. Rebecca too. Though the handling of her plasma served to surprise her family, it was something everyone from Sirius and Polaris central had seen at least once.

Samson and Kaolinite were going to the Fighter school to become Battle Mages, something that prompted nothing more than a slight interest on Naki's part and a little bit of pride from me. On the other hand, Scarlett would undoubtedly follow her family's wishes and become a Druid, but her evident devotion to Amun was unknown to her family and a potential concern for Indra.

Corym, though, was undoubtedly concerned about Rebecca becoming a Ranger. At least in the expansive forests and grasslands of the Rhar Kingdom. Her ranging was more suited to the volcanic badlands within the mountains. A place the wood elf seldom favored going.

For all their merits and all their improvements, they were but an afterthought to the spectators. Myself included. For better or worse, however, that ended with the last encounter of the day and the conclusion of the solo encounters.

As a dragonborne, Urshure was inherently a Sorcerer. Though he openly claimed to want to move down the path of the Warlock on more than one occasion. Being a red, winged dragonborne, that gave anyone who heard of his ambitions the immediate assumption that he, like all Reds, wished to earn the grace of Tiamat.

That alone was enough to put him at the height of Polaris' shit list.

Right under Amun. But chronologically before the half-devil.

Almost like some crude joke, they added a wyvern to the list with the certainty that it'd be placed against the dragonborne.

Urshure was not amused, though he ripped the beast apart all the same.

Without mercy, he skittered up the creature's hind leg and tore into its underbelly with maw and claw to rip and pry apart its skin. Then reeled back to inflate the wyvern's hide with scorching fire before he crawled inside to begin hacking his way through the mouth.

After a gory replay of Slate's encounter, the dragonborne emerged a bloodied mess and sent a monstrous roar to the heavens. Then stretched his wings and took off.