I introduced you to the Gray King a couple weeks ago, in a little snippet from the short story I was working on. Here is the larger piece, though it's very rough and I'm not sure where it's going from here.
Lordac
sat back in his throne, his eyes half closed. All around him the
moans of the damned echoed through the vaulted chamber. He sighed and
shifted in his seat. A few of the liches pontificating before him
paused but when he showed no other sign of moving, they resumed.
“My
lord, forgive the intrusion.” The squat, toad-like creations his
mother used for messengers were among the only living things in this
realm and Lordac welcomed their appearance, even if it usually meant
trouble for him. “Your mother is looking for you.”
“She
knows where to find me. She's the one who put me here in the first
place,” Lordac said. He sighed and straightened the iron crown on
his brow. “All right, where is she?”
“In
her garden,” the creature said.
“Where
in her garden?” Lordac asked.
“By
the roses,” the creature said.
“Which
ones?” Lordac hated playing these games.
“The
black ones,” the creature said.
“Well
that narrows it down to only a quarter of the garden,” Lordac
muttered. He stood up and stretched. “I'll be back as soon as my
mother is finished with me this time.”
“If
she lets you come back,” one of the liches muttered.
Lordac
made note of which one had spoken. When he returned, he'd have to
think of a suitable punishment for it. There was, after all, very
little to amuse him in this sterile, dead world.
Lordac's
cloak swirled behind him as he headed out of the tower that his
mother had named him lord over. The undead scuttled out of his way as
he strode down the black stone floor.
He
made his way to his mother's garden, a mocking echo of the glory it
had once held in the mortal world. For once, his mother was
relatively easy to find. She was seated with Sianni and a few of his
other siblings nearest to the thicket of rose bushes that she favored
when punishing wayward mortal souls.
“Lordac,
I was beginning to wonder if my summons was going to go unanswered
again,” Morana, Guardian of Death, said as he came up. “I see you
are as formal as ever.”
“Your
messengers are dreadfully slow, mother,” Lordac said. He smiled and
bowed to her. “I am, as I have always been, your most faithful
son.”
“Well
you're the only one who hasn't tried to rise up against me, that's
for certain,” Morana said. “Which is why you and Sianni are going
to do something for me.”
“What
is that, mother?” Lordac asked.
“The
dragons are up to something,” Morana said. “The others are in
agreement with me. We don't know what, but ever since the end of the
war they've been brooding in those mountains of theirs. I want you
and Sianni to go to Vassa and see if you can find out what's going
on. Make yourself useful and find something to amuse yourselves while
you are there, but keep an eye on the dragons.”
“I
have no problem with going to Vassa, but how are we to keep an eye on
the dragons? If we get anywhere near their homes the dragons are
going to notice,” Lordac said. “And Sianni? Really, mother? You
don't have enough problems with this new world without sending her
with me?”
“Your
sister is perfectly capable of handling this small task,” Morana
said. “I could always send one of the others with her instead if
you don't want to do it.”
“I'll
do it,” Lordac said. “But you still haven't answered my first
question.”
“That's
up to you to figure out,” Morana said. “The others are sending
their children to do the same thing.”
“I
doubt that,” Lordac muttered under his breath. He checked to see if
his mother had heard him, but she seemed cheerfully ignorant of his
comment. “When did you want us to go?”
“As
soon as you can possibly leave,” Morana said. “You are my
children, so that gives you some power of your own. If you need me
for anything, call for me and I'll help you where I can. The Elder
Gods are being rather finicky about what we can do so I may not be
able to do much.”
“The
Elder Gods have been in a snit since you and the others declared war
on the dragons,” Lordac said.
“The
dragons declared war on us, we did not declare war on them. We simply
retaliated when they attacked,” Morana said.
“Of
course, mother,” Lordac said. “I was only a child at the time so
my memory of the events are of course faulty.”
Morana
turned her attention to one of her daughters. One pale hand stroked
Sianni's dark curls. “You won't disappoint me, will you, Sianni?”
“No
mother,” Sianni said breathlessly. She smiled adoringly up at the
goddess who'd created her.
“Excellent,”
Morana said. “Now go, both of you.”
Lordac
bowed to his mother and turned away. “Lordac, wait for me,”
Sianni called.
“Why?”
Lordac asked, glancing over his shoulder. “You can take yourself to
Vassa. You don't need me to help you.”
“Mother
wants us to work together,” Sianni said.
“Mother
wants us both to go to Vassa,” Lordac said. “There was nothing in
what she said to make me think she expected us to stay together.”
“What
am I supposed to do if you're not with me?” Sianni asked.
“You'll
find something to amuse yourself,” Lordac said. He continued
walking, ignoring his sister's pleas.
He
returned to his tower long enough to exchange his fine clothes for
something more appropriate to the mortal world. It wasn't as if his
strange pallor, his black eyes, and his height wouldn't alert only
the moderately observant individual that he wasn't a mortal. He
sighed and returned to his throne room.
“Are
you leaving us, my lord?” one of the liches asked.
“For
a time, yes,” Lordac said. “Do try to keep the old place from
falling apart any more than it already is while I'm gone.”
Everything around him blurred and the sudden shift of the smells told
him that though he was surrounded by darkness he was no longer in his
mother's realm.
He
glanced up and saw tiny pin pricks of light. Stars,
he thought. I haven't seen stars in a while.
He heard a strange sound to his right. He turned his head. Something
with glowing eyes was growling at him. He frowned. A large canine
snarled and leapt at him. Lordac moved out of the beast's way and
started to walk away. The animal lunged at him again. With a quick
blow, Lordac snapped the thing's neck. He dumped the body and
continued on his way.
Something didn't feel right. He stopped walking. He sniffed the air.
There were a whole myriad of scents he didn't recognize. It had been
some time since he was in the mortal world but he couldn't remember
smelling anything like this. He knelt down and touched the earth
beneath his feet. It was dry and granulated.
“What is this?” he asked, standing up and looking around. Though
it was dark his eyes picked out shapes easily. Or they would have, if
there had been shapes to see. The land around him was flat and
unchanging. He turned slowly, taking in everything around him. There,
in the distance, was a smudge of something. He turned and headed in
that direction.
The sun rose and Lordac was able to get a better look at the
wilderness he now trekked through. Sand as far as the eye could see,
with no sign of anything to break it up. The smudge he'd seen in the
distance looked to be part of the massive forest that had dominated
the continent when he last walked the mortal world. The race that
Rauha, Guardian of Peace, had created lived within the forest.
Perhaps they would be useful in keeping tabs on the dragons.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the heat increased until Lordac
began to cast around for someplace to rest. There was no place in
sight other than the forest on the horizon. He stopped and regarded
it with a disgruntled expression. It wasn't that far away, but it
might as well have been on the other side of the continent with how
hot the day had grown.
Lordac decided to risk detection. He focused on the forest and pulled
on the threads of magic. The world around him blurred. A discordant
sound emerged from the threads. He staggered as he came to a stop.
He was closer to the forest but not as close as he'd intended. He
frowned. That was odd. Something in the forest was acting against
him. He increased his pace and covered the distance within just a few
candlemarks.
The forest was nothing like the primeval woods they'd left behind. He
watched as vines writhed through the trees like slow, barbed
serpents. Twisted beasts prowled in the shadows. From deep within the
forest he sensed something that was completely out of place in this
world. Curious, Lordac plunged himself into the forest.
Here, the beasts pulled back from him. Nothing molested him as he
made his way to the center of the mass of trees. A white tree
shimmered in a shaft of sunlight. Its branches were laden with
iridescent fruit. Beneath its branches, a handful of elves white of
skin and hair wandered aimlessly. They whimpered, pressed themselves
up against the tree, clawed at the fruit, before returning to their
wandering.
“A Chaos tree,” Lordac whispered. “No wonder the forest is so
twisted.” He backed carefully away from the tree, trying not to
draw the attention of the cursed elves beneath lurking in its shadow.
As he drew back, he heard muffled weeping coming from the trees
behind him. He followed the sound until he found a group of elves
huddled at the center of a grove. All of them bore marks of having
been mauled by the things that now prowled the trees.
A few of them saw him and drew back in horror. “You are one of the
cursed ones,” a young female with only one eye said. “Stay back.
We'll not let you take more of our children.”
“I am not one of the cursed ones,” Lordac said. “I would know
what has happened here.”
“The white tree came and the forest changed,” the woman said.
Several of the others were clinging to crude weapons and watching him
warily as she spoke. “Nothing here answers to us anymore. We are
hunted yet we cannot hunt because nothing that prowls here is safe to
eat. We call and we call but there are none left to answer our
prayers.”
“I will answer your prayers,” Lordac said. He looked up. “I
will climb to the higher branches to see what I may.” He seized one
of the lower branches and pulled himself up into a tree.
He climbed as high as he dared. He surveyed the upper branches. There
was fruit up here. He reached out and seized one. He took a bite. It
was untainted. Small animals scampered among the tops of the trees,
and birds nested without fear.
He climbed back down. “How can you answer our prayers?” the one
eyed woman asked. “You are no god.”
“I am your god,” Lordac said. “You are small and light. You can
climb higher than I did. But there is good fruit and animals that are
not tainted in the tops of the trees. Build your homes there. Your
hunts will bring you better food.”
“But how are we to shape the forest? We cannot bond to it as we
once did,” the one eyed female said.
“Blood,” Lordac said. “The cursed ones, as you call them, have
been corrupted by a great power. Only life's power will permit you
some control over the forest again. To do that you must shed some of
your blood and bond yourselves to the forest. It will not give you
complete control, and you will still need to take to the high
branches, but you should be able to bend the trees to your will.”
“How do we do this?” the one eyed woman asked.
Lordac began pulling on the threads. “Take your knives. Each one of
you, the children included, must open a small cut on your hands. Your
blood must touch the forest floor.” The group eyed him suspiciously
but they did as he told them. Everyone, down to the infants at their
mother's breasts, were cut and their blood mingled with the earth.
Lordac yanked on the threads, tying them to the blood they'd shed.
Shrieks of pain echoed as the strands burrowed into their flesh. A
few moments later, they all stood there gasping. Infants and children
whimpered. “What did you do?” the one eyed woman asked.
“You are now bound to the forest. Though it will be slow to do so
at first, it will answer you to some degree,” Lordac said. “Now,
take your children and climb. Climb as high as you can. Build your
homes at the tops of the trees. Your lives will now be tied to the
upper levels of the forest.”
“How are we to build?” the one eyed woman asked.
“Surely you remember how to shape the trees,” Lordac said. “I
know you used to be able to do that. Command the branches to weave
themselves into homes for you. Scavenge wood from the forest floor,
though I would be careful in that as you will not be able to control
the beasts.”
“We have no tools,” the one eyed woman said. “We have lost
everything.”
Lordac sighed. This was going to take a little more power than he was
wanting to use. The last thing he wanted to do was attract his
mother's attention. “I will help you this once. Then you will have
to help yourselves.”
Lordac climbed back up the tree. He began by twisting threads and
binding branches to each other. He grabbed smaller tree limbs and
wove them together. Several candlemarks later he climbed back down.
“What did you do? We heard the trees call out,” the one eyed
woman said.
“Climb and find new homes. They will do until you can build
something better for yourselves,” Lordac said.
Children were slung on backs and infants cradled against chests. The
elves clambered up the trees, twisting and turning with the branches
as they climbed higher. He could hear their cries as they reached the
crude shelters he'd created for them. As he turned to leave, the one
eyed woman dropped down onto one of the lower branches.
“Who are you, that we may direct our prayers to you,” she said.
Lordac looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. “I am Lordac, the
Gray King. I will hear your prayers and if it pleases me, I will
answer them. I will not coddle you as Rauha did. You must learn to
survive on your own. But I will help when I feel it is necessary.”
“We will build shrines to you and our children will worship your
name,” the one eyed woman said. She climbed back up the tree.
Lordac carefully wove a net over the community so he would know if
they called out to him. He smiled. These would only be the first. He
turned and walked out of the forest. It wouldn't do to disobey his
mother. For now.
