The Tell-Tale Heart

[Torc Ironwood]

As Lhex frowned for a second time, Torc felt once again like he had just taken his own life in his hands. It was only when the God began to make fun of Torc, that his anger once again arose. Lhex had to be one of the most infuriating gods he had ever met, Creation isn't sorry, Creation isn't this or that. By all that was good and holy, did Lhex want him to shake the very foundation of his mind! Let me just shake the heavens so I am hear it sound! Let me just puncture holes through the universe and break into the primordial chaos! Is that what you want!!! Torc fists closed tight with anger, he wanted to spit the words in Lhex's face. Screw fate and freewill, let me grab the very primordial elements and create something outside of it all! Torc for a moment what to punch pass all his emotions, all his thoughts, his soul, and mind. He wanted to impose order by merely existing, he wanted to feel the cosmic wake that which tears down even the most elemental Djed and reshapes it, and he wanted to grab it and mold it to his core like being birthing from it. To live or die based on the idea that he simply existed and that created order. For that raw moment, if Torc had known how, he would have opened up a portal into absolute nothing and everything, just to show Lhex that he would create his own order. He had no idea what he would create, he knew that he would be destroyed and only his strength of a single idea would allow him to reassemble himself. That idea was simply who he was, in a time and place that had no definition it would mean that he would have to create his own definition and exist from that. To cling to uncompromising beliefs about who and what he was, and allow those beliefs to pull and assemble elements of reality into shape and form. Torc blinked for a moment and was brought back to the present. He felt like time had almost froze, like he had opened a door and had nearly blacked out. No that was wrong, blacked out meant loss of conscious, this was like a striping of everything and that the only thing that had turned him back was the little light of his behind stopping before it went to far. Now Lhex was talking about two and something about not being who he was. Lhex had the ability to talk as if everything was a one thing after another. At the Zeltiva University, he once saw a metalsmith make a collection of gears for a student. Asking what they did, the smith showed him how each gear though individual fitted with the next one and turned. Somehow, he felt like that was what Lhex was talking about, how each person, place and thing, were all a bunch of gears turning. An odd picture came to mind at the mention of the dung beetles. Like somehow everything was connected, like their were small gears that lived and died within bigger gears, and that Lhex was just making sure that he repaired the necessary gears. Was that how Lhex defined himself? The one unchangeable fact about Lhex was that as chaos moved back and forth like foam in a whirlpool occasionally a pattern would emerge from it, and that pattern would always be there. Yet he needed the chaos of the whirlpool to exist as a pattern, to allow all the random events to show its pattern in the end. Torc felt like the first bubble that was swirling around in the chaos, as he picked up the piece of parchment. Lhex was setting up a grand scheme of events by giving this to Torc. It was like a sickness that spread. Lhex had created this doorless and windowless realm because there was literally nothing but disorder outside of it. For a moment, Torc panicked as he looked at the list of ingredients. Impossible was his first thought… and then he began to realize that in Lhex's mind it was nothing more then a set of events. He caught glimpses of each event. He would need a summoner, one with the knowledge to find a world where once grand mountains stood only to be melted. They would then need to ask a denizen to retrieve five and half pounds of its essence and bring it back. He would have to travel to Black Rock… to the spiral to find scissors and to retrieve a hair from death, and gain audience with Tanora. She was in contact with Life and could help them retrieve the first drop of water. Besides he needed to get a pinch of tomorrow as well. Torc felt like he was staring at rocks poking up there head in the river of time. Just because they were there didn't mean that Torc would survive crash, but somehow in Torc's mind it meant that the events were taking shape. The foam of chaos was churning and soon a pattern would arise from Torc's freewill and fate. Torc read the parchment several more times to burn the writing into his mind. As he folded the paper, he placed it in his work bag. Torc felt the piece of paper slide down in the knapsack and felt his hand cross the cold iron of a blacksmith puzzle. He crafted them for the children of Wind Reach out of scrap iron. Perhaps it was the way he thought about Lhex or what the God must have defined himself as, but he brought out the puzzle and placed it on the desk. It was a silent thank you to the god, fate or chance had made him bring it with him, and it seemed an appropriate gift for a god who relied on both. "I just have one more question, who is this nuit of Priskil that I must find? Or will you save me some time and send me to them." After all, Torc thought it was perhaps the one question that Lhex understood. If the list was a series of events that had to be completed to form Aquiras a new heart, and Torc had to be true to himself in order for it to succeed, then it made sense that he needed someone already dead to cut the hair of Dira. Lhex had also mentioned Priskil, so it had to be someone dead and devoted to the Goddess. The only thing left was that he needed someone with magickal knowledge that had contacts and the ability to research. Which to Torc's mind was someone from Sahova, the island of undead and magic. Then again, with how Torc's luck was holding out today, Lhex probably thought he was being a petching smart ass. Then again, hadn't he just yelled at Torc that creation wasn’t shameless.

[Tarot]

There was a pause of sorts as Lhex examined the puzzle Torc set down on the desk. His old, somewhat arthritic fingers clasped at the thing, twisting it around for a while as the terrible ancient one seemed to lose interest in the man sitting before him. Then, all of a sudden, he had a moment of epiphany. "There!" he said, pointing at the item with a grin too large for comfort, "The very thing I was busy trying to lose! You brought it to me." He threw the puzzle across the room, making it land right into the open cabinet from which he had emerged, where it was submerged by a flight of falling papers. "That will make itself useful in time. Believe it or not, you have rendered me a service today." Torc had a feeling that someone, long ago, must have brought the cursed die to Lhex just like he now offered his creation to the god - and maybe a long time from now, or maybe tomorrow, his puzzle would crash into someone's life and change it utterly. Perhaps the entire world with it - for he was now a part of the endless flow of things. His eyes narrowed when Torc mentioned finding a Nuit of Priskil. "There is no Nuit of Priskil," he shot back, but then: "Or maybe there is, and she is squandering the gifts she was given, wallowing in mediocrity when she could be legend. Regardless, Torc Ironwood, be careful with your questions. Be very very careful, because my voice becomes your scripture. If I tell you one way or another, then it's settled. And when there is only one outcome you desire, and countless to choose from, what are the odds of you getting what you want?" Lhex stared at Torc in the eyes, making direct eye contact for the very first time. His eyes were small but lively, and Torc caught a glimpse of infinity lurking behind those eyes. He saw - somehow he knew - that there were endless possibilities, and he himself was merely a shard of a figment of a shadow of a single thread suspended amidst things too great to imagine. It wasn't a matter of success or failure, but success and failure, for both had already happened or would happen, somewhere, sometime. It was a matter of choosing the right thread. Who made the choice was unclear. "Go now," Lhex dismissed him, "back to the Twins. They must be very fond of you, for them to give up this quill of mine after three thousand years. You seem to have good skills, better friends and the best intentions: all the makings of the perfect tragedy!" His laughter vanished instantly, as did his humble realm, and Torc found himself back in Wind Reach, exactly at the point in time when he had left. Kel's mouth was still half-open and she finally had the chance to speak her sentence. "Are you deaf or something? I'm pretty sure we said to write your signature, and last time I checked that wasn't Lhex!" The young woman blinked and saw that the quill was gone, quickly connecting the dots. The gods were rarely surprised for long. "Well," she said in a lower tone, "you seem to have survived this. Um, did it go well?"

[Torc Ironwood]

Torc had a feeling that someone, long ago, must have brought the cursed die to Lhex just like he now offered his creation to the god - and maybe a long time from now, or maybe tomorrow, his puzzle would crash into someone's life and change it utterly. Perhaps the entire world with it - for he was now a part of the endless flow of things. Torc watched Lhex, who wore the face of an old man examine the puzzle he had given to him. As the god burst forth his answer, Torc wondered who he had done a disservice to, by giving Lhex the puzzle. Still, Torc wasn't one to interrupt the God when he was pleased with a simple tavern puzzle. As Torc asked his question and received an answer, he realized that the time for questions were over, if he pressed anymore or any less something would be written that could destroy everything Torc worked for. Yet the question Lhex posed him perplexed him even more. If there were countless outcomes to choose from, didn't that mean there were countless opportunities to succeed and fail? Granted there was only one outcome that Torc wanted to happen, and that outcome was the one that fit perfectly to him. It was the look that Lhex gave him that stopped Torc's thoughts. Torc had never felt more small and insignificant, in the vast whirlpool of chaos and choices, Torc wasn't even a thought to be considered. His wants and desires were nothing compared to the grand scheme of things, and Lhex had given him all the advice he could to find his chance at success and failure. Lhex was right… this mission, this quest would be filled with tragedy, all Torc could hope for was that the people he loved would prosper from his pain. Torc heard the laughter leave his ears, but not his heart. For a moment as Kel yelled, he allowed the pain and burden of the quest rest openly on his face. Lhex had shown him his place in the grand scheme of the infinite… and it was nothing. Torc Ironwood was nothing, that knowledge weighted him down more heavily then dozen iron bars. Every item he had crafted had just helped a few people. Every person he had done good for, amounted to nothing compared to infinity. Even the love he had felt for Mona had meant… Torc stopped, muscles rippled across his jaw, as a firm pressure of anger gripped him. No, Mona had meant everything to him. Torc didn't have to deal with the infinite, he didn't need to judge it and repair it. Torc didn't have to care about it, because for one brief moment in Torc's life Mona had meant everything that was good and right. He had felt larger and stronger because of her, the life of a small village smith had been his infinite. Lhex could stuff destiny, fate and infinite possibilities in a dark hole, because his world, his life wasn't insignificant. It was a grand adventure, filled with love, hard work, and friends. Lhex had everything, except meaning to put everything into context. He didn't care about one life or friendship or love, because everything was more important, and Torc felt so sorry for him. Feeling slightly better Torc looked at Kel, and gave her a soft smile. The feeling of smallness was slowly going away in his eyes as Torc remembered that to him, the real important things: love, family, and happiness were his infinite, they were his everything. "It went as well as it could have under the circumstances. Lhex gave me…" Torc didn't really know how to describe it having seen Lhex's mind he wanted to say it was a mix between specific events and sick humor. "A recipe to follow, if you look at the entire list it seems… insane and yet I can see some glimmers of hope and pathways to accomplish the tasks." Torc dug in his knapsack to pull out the piece of paper. "One: melt a thousand mountains, the size of Mt. Skyinarta or greater, and put five pounds in a bowl, a little more if you're going for a very hearty meal." Torc honestly thought about it. "My first thought was that it wasn't impossible… just really difficult and time consuming, but then I thought it doesn't say it has to be this world that we melt down the mountains from. Nor do we have to actually melt them… we just need to collect five pounds of it in a bowl. I think this is possible Kel. Wyn, I think I am going to need a lot of help with different skill sets, but if we find the right people for this cause… we can do this."

[Tarot]

The twins blinked upon hearing the details of the recipe Lhex had bestowed upon Torc. Wyn let out a low whistle. Kel leaned back on her chair, contemplating. "Well, at the very least we are back on more familiar ground here, the hopeless being our job description and all." Melt a thousand mountains like Mt. Inarta or bigger... The goddess gave it a little thought and frowned. "I think you have half of it right, it doesn't have to be Mizahar. Quite obviously, at that; I don't suppose that world would survive the process and remain the way it was. It may well, I don't know, explode or something. It needs to be bigger than Mizahar, too, and with a lot more mountains and volcanoes. But as far as the melting goes, I think it must be you causing the whole thing. See, the thing is, just as we feared the 'recipe' is not about hugely magical catalysts... if you read carefully these are more like symbols and tokens than true components to a god's heart." Wyn picked up from where Kel left, in true twin fashion. "It does seem like that. And what it means to you is that the real ingredient, the glue merging it all, is the intent, will and purity of those who actually undertake the quests. That's the energy that could make Aquiras' rebirth possible. Shortcuts really won't do here. And a world must be destroyed just to fulfill the first step." The enormity of it all was apparent: even worse, Lhex had upheld a cosmic principle of balance that required destruction as the means to creation. Was that what he meant by creation being shameless? Deal of making, deal of unmaking? Kel sighed. "We'll try to find a world that's abandoned or lifeless. Those are actually the majority so it shouldn't be a problem. Finding one with so many great mountains is harder, but we can probably help with that, too. Now, the meltdown..." and she stopped there, doubtful. Of course, the desperate plan always had to come from Wyn's mouth. "Well, you could ask Priskil's marked for help in this department - we are going straight to her after we're done here - but I doubt they have such a skill in their ranks. There's this man who could probably do it, though," the young man offered with a nervous smile, "Krigel Avisata is his name. You may want him on your team." Kel rolled her eyes. "Might as well ask Ivak himself." "He owes us one, Kel," her sibling said. "And he's done this before. Melted down a world, I mean. Not as big as the one we need for this, but it was a world nevertheless." "Yes, and he did that just to see if it could be done! Do you really think Torc could keep him in check? That man is... unstable." Wyn tilted his head. "So what's your plan?" There was no reply, and both siblings looked at Torc uneasily.