Chapter 108

“So it’s over?” Roxanne asked as the three of us appeared on Draenoric.

“Yes,” Athena replied for us.

“Care to tell the full story now?”

“In as much as I can, yes.”

“Aye, keep your secrets. We know you follow rules that we aren’t supposed to know about,” Roxanne chuckled.

“I was approached by the Higher Powers, as you know them, to aid and assist with a centuries old problem they had with a Power called Beog. Until they did, I knew nothing about the Yr’ch or Draenoric, nor would have given a damn had I done so; you know what I was like.”

“Aye, you were very ... Athena,” Roxanne replied with a grin.

“Pretty much summed me up, yes,” Athena grinned as practically the entire complement of those involved in the final conflict, including Morgana and Jude, settled in and around to listen.

“The deal was, I would gain, or re-gain, Higher Power status if I became the goddess of the Yr’ch and they would not stop me with the return of the banished Powers. This I did ... sneakily I thought, until you caught me mucking around on Nansack and demonstrated you knew a lot more than I thought you did. Even better, you showed you’d be in favour of me becoming the goddess of the Yr’ch.”

“Aye, Simon and John here guessed that from the moment you first collared them into coming here,” Roxanne nodded.

“Yes, I was a bit naïve with regards to just how smart you are,” she grinned. “Well, all was more or less going to plan until Beog was torn asunder by Säräquyael, or Sarkal, which is easier to pronounce. Then I realised I’d been set up, as, even if I’d won, Sarkal was one of the Elect, or first creations, and Heavenly law said it was death for any other than another Elect to kill one. However, by then I felt too much responsibility to the Yr’ch and you Mages to simply pull out and run and was, I guess, prepared to die.”

“This true about the Elect, Jude?” Morgana asked.

“Yes, though the suspicion has always been that the Elect ... or at least one of them, added the law when it was pronounced,” he replied.

“Self-interest, how terribly human of them,” Marnie chuckled.

“Where do you think you got it from?” Jude replied, his eyes twinkling.

“Heh!”

“When John and the Unbroken got trapped in the ruins though, a way out of my predicament became possible. By inviting my allies to fight with me against Sarkal, I could force the judgement of Heaven to be set aside, as they would not be prepared to go wiping out the innocent to hide their dirty little secret. Which is why I didn’t tell you, because if you knew, you’d be guilty.”

“It’s also why we senior Theurgists refused to take part,” Jude added. “We did know and would have said something, same with some of the Powers like Jehrameel.”

“Used again,” Roxanne noted, though her smile told us she didn’t mind.

“I felt the worst that would happen was I would still die and you’d have your memories tampered with,” Athena confessed.

“Good odds really,” I nodded.

“It all came together when you came up with a plan to support me on Vultoq. I knew the Powers there hated that law that prevented them from wiping out the Vultoqi and Sarkal as it was his demesne to a certain extent. It’s also why I held back my ability with the sword until he decided to have a go at you and the Yr’ch and forced you into retaliation.”

“Ah,” Clara nodded. “Nice one Athena.”

“After that it was just a case of wearing him down, though I never expected him to try and take you with him, just me.”

“And then?” Marnie asked.

“A hearing in the Courts of the Holy.”

“Ah, that’s where we were?” I asked.

“Yes, though what you saw was tailored to your senses to protect you from the Powers in their true form,” Athena confirmed.

Both Oonagh and I gave our descriptions of what we saw and had it confirmed by Jude that ordinary humans could not look upon the true shape of a Power because the sight was usually enough to kill us or at best drive us totally insane ... including Mages.

“So were they looking to kill you or find a way out of killing you?” Arch asked.

“I think they were testing a law they knew to be ... suspect, and this was the first chance they’d had to do it since the war with the Enemy,” Athena admitted.

“So they may well have been trying to kill you?”

“Some undoubtedly were; particularly those who hold to the theory ‘if it’s written down, it’s set in stone’ school of thinking.”

“Some, like Jehrameel, clearly weren’t in favour of you being killed simply because you won a duel, one that you hadn’t instigated,” I shrugged.

“Yes, though they were mostly the ... ones who work with the various races; not those who adjudge Heaven’s laws.”

“Much easier dealing with things than people,” Jude chuckled.

“Yes, people are messy, contrary and never do what you’d expect at times,” Morgana grinned. “Do they, John?”

“That would be boring and, where would be the fun in that?” I laughed.

“So, where was Michael in all this?” Oonagh asked.

“Judge and likely executioner,” Athena replied.

“He was pushing for the law to be applied,” Oonagh nodded.

“Yes, but it only exposed how unjust the law was. That was the tack behind his thinking, I believe. He suspected, or knew, the law wasn’t that of the Almighty, but this was the first time that they’d had a chance to remove it as these things cannot just be removed unless there’s a case that flies in the face of them.”

“Ah...”

“By emphasising on how I should be killed for defending myself when challenged and ensuring that my allies would have to be punished too, he ensured the jurors would have to acquit.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Arch nodded. “One less Power, no trouble. Though how else was she supposed to react to a challenge against her people? Interfering with His plan amongst mortals? Big no, no.”

“More or less, though there were other things going on that you aren’t allowed to know, some of them. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to know either. Still, I got a reward,” she finished with a grin.

“Reward?” Roxanne asked.

“I’m technically an Angel now ... the goddess of the majority of the Yr’ch.”

“Ah, a Heavenly agent?”

“Yes, Roxanne.”

“Different much?” Róisín asked.

“Yes, though I’m still very much me, just a lot more aware of the ‘Plan’ and have access to the Power of the Almighty now.”

“Ah yes, the mysterious Plan,” Morgana chuckled.

“To know the Plan is to deviate from it,” Jude replied. “That’s why they come down hard on questions; it’s to dissuade you from asking them.”

“I guess not killing off the Vultoqi helped as well?” Marnie asked.

“Very much so,” Athena nodded. “A lot of them thought what you did a novel solution to a long term problem, as, even with Sarkal gone; they would still be a problem for any race that happened upon them.”

“So, why did Beog pick a fight with them?” Callum asked.

“He didn’t, the Yr’ch under his leadership did ... technically. Beog was luxuriating in his hall of splendour most of the time and ignoring what they got up to so long as the worship kept coming. I doubt he even realised how far they’d expanded. That’s why he went bananas with the leadership when they called him in. Not because they were losing, but because they’d attacked in the first place. The best he could do was seal away the Vultoqi in a form of temporal stasis and hope no one would be so stupid as to release them.”

“Ouch, guilty as charged,” I chuckled.

“Sooner or later it would have happened, John. The neardark, as the Vultoqi called it, was simply a repeat of the same day over and over again; hence they studied and became more and more powerful ... as Sarkal hoped. I suspect the Almighty arranged things for you Mages to be around when they did escape as you were by then capable of defeating them ... but that’s only a theory on my part as I have no idea what, if anything, His plans are,” Athena confessed.

“None but the Elect who currently serve Him do,” Jude nodded.

“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Roxanne nodded. “So, what are your plans now, Athena?”

“To cherish and protect the Yr’ch and keep a better eye on them than Beog did,” she replied. “Also to live out a life with Gregorius in that hidden valley.”

“Ah, the domesticated goddess thing?” Róisín giggled.

“Yes. He just makes me feel so good in my ‘mortal’ form that I’m head over heels in love with him when I’m in it,” she confirmed. “Plus, we’ll have lots to do keeping the Yr’ch relatively behaving themselves on Draenoric, until they’re ready to expand again.”

“Then you’ll have to give them up ... those who go?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m definitely not doing a Beog; my new status won’t allow it anyway. No doubt a Power will become their new ‘Athena’ on a new world. The Æsir manage fine that way, so I’m sure I will too.”

“Very wise,” Jude nodded. “Look after your people here and you’ll be fine, just guide them in the path they need to take.”

“Like I have a choice now?” she giggled.

“Not really,” he grinned.

“Anyway, that’s the explanation of what I believe was really going on ... in so far as I’m allowed to tell you,” Athena concluded.

“So what now?” I asked.

“Well, I’m going to see my friends amongst the Yr’ch and say goodbye to a few of them, like Crnnch and Seekta. Then I’ll need to head home as I intend cooking Gregorius a meal.”

“We’ll keep in touch via Crnnch or Brnnt, though hopefully there won’t be anything you’ll need us for,” Morgana replied.

“I doubt it; also I don’t think we’ll need an ambassador to your cluster either. Eventually we’ll have our own alliance here in a thousand years or so.”

“Well, the Yr’ch have the connection to Jingol via a portal so if you change your mind or they just want a chat they can pop in there.”

“I’ll let them know. But this is goodbye, I guess,” Athena replied with a few tears and getting a lot of hugs.

We all arrived back on Jingol for a couple of special occasions. The first being the victory parade of the Battalions and the Alliance. This was held on the main street of Jingol itself past the royal stand in front of the Summer Palace. We were all joined by our families as well as other guests from the various Allies as the various nations (who wanted to) marched their expeditionary troops past, getting loud applause from the Drow civilians. The most rapturous applause coming for their own Battalions along with loud cheers as they claimed a victory with honour for themselves. It was clear from their faces that they believed that honour and pride had been regained and that the cloud they had lived under for over six years had finally dispelled. This was confirmed by Regent Taqual at the later reception in the Palace that the Sons of Druchii had more or less collapsed into infighting and personal feuds.

“So I am safe from them?” Oonagh asked politely having watched the parade discreetly at her own request away from the main party.

“I believe so yes, though you will still be guarded, just in case,” Taqual confirmed.

“That is fine with me; the sisters are part of my business arrangements anyway, when they aren’t busy elsewhere.”

“Yes, I’m told you have a few orders waiting for you when you return to your outlet,” he nodded.

“Good, for all I cannot openly sell, it is my intention to pay my way and retrieve those items that I was forced to sell to begin my venture.”