The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

Neveah raised her head confidently, waiting for the world-state image to peel itself backward in a grievous rout in front of her point… but nothing happened.

Mae Myrna frowned at her from across the table. “Nether Warriors? What are you talking about?”

From the lack of pulse from the natural force, Neveah had perhaps her saddest realization of the entire night. Her insight had been more accurate than she even suspected. Mae Myrna hadn’t been lying about the way the pattern she generated powered itself, but it was a more central conceit than that; she didn’t know how her image force worked, not really.

She had expected it to be half-known knowledge, which she could force a confrontation over to reach the other woman. Yet Mae didn’t understand the scope of her efforts. Or those it could easily influence and those it couldn’t.

“You are just afraid, aren’t you? That’s why you are hiding in here.” Neveah whispered, almost without thinking. No other explanation for her lack of awareness made sense.

The invisible force blasted out from Mae’s body, shaking the room. Her countenance darkened. “Of course I fear the cruelty of this world. How could you not? At any moment death might walk out of the murky shade of the future and beckon me over with a long finger? For all that this method possesses flaws, I am at least trying to shield our weakest from the fickle dictates of fate. Do not resent me just because I’m willing to fight for a different lot in life.”

“Your fear-” Neveah changed her mind and started again. The churn of the invisible force, the hanging shadow of the significance, it was all becoming a bit too much. She felt slightly ill. “Did you know that every other location in the Aetherlands has been at peace for the last week? The reprieve will soon be over, but hostilities in every other location have ceased after the Nether Leader was injured in battle. Why didn’t they cease here?”

Genuine confusion crossed Mae’s face, but the instability in the force began to vanish. She clearly didn’t understand how truly flawed the foundation of her little experiment was. “I possess no special insights into the motivations of Nether Leadership. But are you sure about this peace? I have heard nothing-”

“One of the many flaws in your construction is its inability to allow outside information to affect it. You are insular. Such is the result of your foundation being built on fear. But Mae Myrna, the reason that the hostilities didn’t cease with the rest of the conflict is that you are the Nether leader here.”

“...I don’t understand your accusation.” Mae frowned. Yet a satisfying ripple ran through the force. Even if the owner didn’t understand the actions of its pet, that didn’t mean the semi-autonomous force based on what people ‘deserve’ would be numb to reality.

“You see, Mae Myrna, this is why your chosen utopia simply will not survive. You claim, at its core, your truth has spread and made the lives it touches better. Yet you have failed the weakest and least of those under your purview, the Nether beings caught in your web.” Neveah enunciated the words in a careful cadence. The force rippled around her body, still pressing against her and still unable to seep into her skin without an invitation. “You take advantage of them, cast them in whatever roles you wish, treat them as cattle. The Nether Warriors here do not remain willingly. They are coerced, twisted, and warped into a convenient villain. And they certainly did not deserve this hell.”

Mae stilled. Her eyes went wide as the implications hit her. Again, it occurred to Neveah how vulnerable she looked. The Patron of Truth hadn’t come here in a healthy mindset. She seemed haunted and hunted, seeking to play princess, knight, and dragon with her Nether Warrior dolls to avoid reality.

What did you see in the attack on Wyndaos? Neveah wondered. How could you become so hollowed out so quickly?

“It’s the pattern Nether King Hungry Eye made. Of course it would be more effective at inserting itself into the existences of Nether beings than Aether. Without your knowledge, the Nether Warriors became the vicious monsters you needed to justify your narrative. You are afraid of them and they are paying the price. And so long as they serve as the gristle to keep your precious image functioning, all the rest is a lie.”

“I am not afraid of Nether Warriors,” Mae hissed, but her words deflected from the main point. Around her, the pulsing force began to tear and shred itself in its a less cohesive force, buzzing painfully from the revelation.

“Not of the Nether Warriors hurting you, no. But you look at them and remember what happened in the attack on Wyndaos, don’t you?” Neveah drew a breath in for a final blow and leaned forward. The significance rumbled. “You did not create this isolated world to escape from a world that is pointlessly cruel and capricious. You buried your head here in order to convince yourself you deserve the blessings you’ve been given, the advantages and successes you’ve possessed. And all you can do is remember the crimes you committed, sacking a city of storytellers and innocents in the name of justice.”

“You know nothing.” Mae spat. Yet some vital aspect in the image began to give. The core tenets tore, revealing a bleeding heart of emotion, a mass of depression and self-doubt expanded to fill the entire room.

Neveah felt her heart ache for the pain she witnessed, but she needed to cut it out while it was exposed. Around her, the flow of invisible energy melted back like she was a hot stone dropped in a drift of soft snow. “Even if you won’t acknowledge it, you cannot escape the flaw in your image force. Disengage your image, Mae Myrna take a step back. If you reflect on your actions-”

“You know nothing,” Mae repeated the words, but her eyes burned with a different sort of hateful darkness. Neveah blinked as the fissure in her person, revealing all that emotional turmoil, snapped shut. For a second she couldn’t understand what had happened, but then she saw the thin threads of the world-state image running through the edges of the wound, sewing it shut.

You… why did you choose such a painful road? Neveah’s jaw dropped. The threads of the world state that Mae had invited into herself, altering herself in a grotesque mirroring of Fatia Cerulean, of all people, came out of her and rejoined the broader force.

But those threads carried drops of figurative emotional rot. The beginnings of a dangerous shift in the world-state image.

The shredding in the invisible energy accelerated and the frayed result twisted and curled like a corkscrew. Significance continued to churn above their position, a small maelstrom of intense conflict. The lines around the Patron of Truth’s eyes hardened, her decision firming in her mind and her whole image calcifying in response.

Her ignored pain seeped out from the artificial addressed wound, doubling down on the worst of her traits.

Neveah suddenly saw the meaning to the significance and nearly swore out loud; she didn’t need to quickly get through to Mae Myrna, she needed to do the process gently, without her rejecting the truth about herself and making such a foolish decision out of stubbornness. There had never been a time limit, but a failure condition. Because now that Mae’s consciousness had rejected its own pain-

The new distorted and degenerated energy seemed lined with hooks, a whirlwind that ripped at Neveah and left her gasping. This was an energy that would not have as much trouble converting unwilling individuals to its ways. More and more of the energy suffered and peeled outward, a cascading transformation of woe and self-denial that left the world state image vicious and hungry. The rabid new core blasted outward with enough force that Neveah leaned away and squinted her eyes. The walls shook and the doorframes rattled.

If Randidly hadn’t taken the time to understand his negative emotional cores, if he had forced his way forward… Her eyes followed the cutting currents of the energy. The change began around Mae Myrna as she dug her heels in and refused to face her flaws and spread outward in aggressive winds, cutting and infecting Sanctuary around him. It would have been like this. The blossoming of a rotten flower. A pulsing regurgitation of sickened flesh, a caricature of health, a seedbed of corruption.

“I will build my perfect world. And if you do not wish to be a part of it, you don’t have to be,” Mae straightened from the base of her spine, a dangerous construct performing its activation sequence. The vulnerability and genuine hope visible earlier had been locked away with her pain. Neveah took another step back from the table. She felt a queasy feeling in her stomach and a headache brewing from the combined pressure of significance and the horrid invisible force, gone rancid.

Mae Myrna’s hands curled into claws. The upright, self-righteous woman vanished so quickly she seemed to have never even existed. In her place stood a cruel monolith, twisted by fear into the very thing she hated.

“You don’t need to do this.” Neveah said. She knew she sounded like she was pleading, and she was. Already, she could feel the slimy edge creeping through the city.

“The world will not better its behavior without cause.” Mae Myrna said coldly. The force around her body continued to build, the energy in the room accelerating around her as she focused on Neveah. The hook edge energy rose up in a tidal wave of force, seeking to either assimilate or obliterate her.

Neveah froze. In the split second of action available to her to mount her counterattack, her cold-fingered fear kept her from unleashing Tiamat. So she just watched as the attack came forward.

At the last second, a blast of force cracked open the sky and obliterated the looming strike. Huge chunks of splintered timber fell down around them as the individual burrowed their way down to the map room. Neveah have been saved and she let out a sudden gasp of relief. “Randidly! I have no idea how you sensed what was about to happen, but thank-”

Her words cut off as she actually looked at the figure floating down amongst them. The aura of momentum spread out first, very different from the notes that Randidly would have utilized, especially in a massive tree. Neveah looked up at her savior, a dead-eyed Elhume who barely spared her a glance.

He raised his fist and threw another punch, obliterating the rising tide of invisible force that swirled up in front of him, resisting his descent. He snarled and glared at the only woman he noticed right now. “Mae! I had assumed… I had assumed you didn’t understand the damage you did. That you tore at the universe with your existence. That you hurt Pine with your misplaced sense of justice. Yet you do this willingly… why?”

Several more individuals burrowed their way into the room. The wall to the larger hall collapsed underneath the combined strain from all the arrivals, giving Neveah the chance to open up some space. Mae still stood with her hands clenched, glaring up at Elhume floating above her head. Her new, bloodsucking world-state image created a tight slipstream around her body, building up momentum. One by one, every Patron except the Patron of Feathers floated down and watched the confrontation with unease. Even the Patron of the Deep had come with Elhume on his tidal wave of significance, biting his lip and undulating his massive body.

If I had not forced the issue… what would have happened. Neveah felt helpless and foolish. If I had just taken my time, without being disgusted by the energy, I would-

Don’t judge yourself. Randidly spoke directly into her mind, forcing his way through the interference of the energy. You couldn’t know Mae Myrna had the possibility of blowing up like that. Be careful, I’m on my way but it will take a bit of time.

“Don’t you have children to murder, Elhume?” Mae countered. A nearby wall exploded and the scaled, cloaked form of Duo walked out of the debris, somewhat undercutting her point. His long tail slashed side to side and drool dribbled out from between his mandibles.

She shook her head. “Of course I would prefer to help your son. And what has that ever gotten us? We’ve followed you for years and accomplished nothing! All we’ve done is compromise. This is probably not even about Pine, is it? This is about control for you. I finally have found another Path I believe in and you show up to stop me.”

Elhume’s eyes narrowed in irritation. He did not attempt any further discussion. He made a fist and threw a punch. The whole tree shook with the power contained in the blow. Neveah felt surprise; as far as she remembered, Elhume was nowhere near this strong the last time he had run into Randidly.

Mae Myrna, the one-time Patron of Truth, simply screamed. Her altered energy began to boil around her body, a rising tide of violence. When the two forces met, the entire floor of the tree exploded.

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