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masterghandalf) wrote2024-01-01 07:38 am
masterghandalf) wrote2024-01-01 07:38 am
The Gates of Dawn: Chapter Thirty-Three, Chapter Thirty-Four, and Chapter Thirty-Five
This is a crosspost from Das_Sporking2. Previous entries of this spork may be found here.
Warning: These chapters contain a death and the abuse of children.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to ring in the new year as we continue our journey through Robert Newcomb’s The Gates of Dawn! Last time, Scrounge wiped out a city, Nicholas got new orders, and Joshua and Geldon came back, with Ox in tow. Today, the truth is revealed… until Newcomb decides to retcon it all away in the second trilogy, at least! Joining us as usual will be Len and Yhani!
Chapter Thirty-Three
Len: *flatly* And we’re just so thrilled to be here, trust me. Well, we open with Ragnar, who’s thrilled to watch the thousands of consuls employing the craft for the benefit of the young adept. Wait, there’s thousands of consuls? The hells? I thought there were maybe a few hundred at most… damn. Wigg had this kind of resources, and he still screwed everything up. Ragnar’s so excited to see… whatever this is unfold, he’s even brought out his fancy chair to sit in and watch, along with a bunch of food and wine and his sex slave from last time to sit at his feet and feed it to him. *flatly* Yay. It’s apparently the day after the destruction of Ilendium, and dawn had burst forth into beauty (excuse me?); Ragnar’s apparently had to keep dusting some black gunk off his robes, but he doesn’t mind, ‘cause it’s the forbidden material of the ancients, whatever that means. He gloats for a bit to himself about how it’ll soon be unearthed, and he takes some of his brain fluid as he watches the consuls working in the marble quarries. The stone had made the province of Ephyra, despite her relatively small geographical size, one of the richest in the nation. That had been the way of things until the coming of the Coven and the subsequent collapse of both the government and the economy. Since then, the quarries had remained still. Until today. Yeah, ‘cause these people never do anything for themselves without a wizard to tell them to, we know. But Ragnar now knows what Nicholas is after, and he watches as three thousand consuls – sweet Sovereigns, give me that many wizards and I’m pretty sure I could knock over any country in my world, including Six-damned Riedra* - use magic to mine a section of the marble the Directorate had apparently forbidden anyone to touch. Their dirty faces emotionless masks of servitude and their movements autonomic, they toiled unceasingly at the harvesting of the beautiful stone. Which sure sounds like mind control to me. More forestallments, probably. *she rolls her eyes*
*MG’s Note: In the Eberron setting Len is from, Riedra is a very large, repressive and powerful empire that rules most of a continent.
Len: Ragnar perks up as he watches the consuls blast more of the marble free, sending dark, rather ominous-looking soot into the air, and he thinks to himself that this marble – which is full of azure veins, ‘cause of course it is – is very valuable, and the thing Nicholas needs above all to accomplish his goals. Meanwhile, the “hatchlings” circle overhead with Scrounge riding one of them, while Nicholas himself is down in the quarry supervising (wait, shouldn’t Ragnar be down in the quarry supervising while Nicholas sits up on the throne watching everything? Which of you is in charge here, anyway? This is basic evil overlord stuff!). Suddenly Nicholas levitates himself out of the pit and over to Ragnar, assuring him that everything is going well and complimenting him and Scrounge on their execution of the attack. Apparently, everyone in Ilendium was slaughtered just for being inconvenient and now Nicholas can work in piece, and… huh, that’s actually kind of chilling in a way none of the constant descriptions of Ragnar in all his grossness have managed. And Ilendium can also be used as the site for the next stage of their plan, so yay for efficiency? Nicholas calls Scrounge over and has him bring them a consul; he does so, and Nicholas then has Scrounge kill the poor bastard by shooting him with a poisoned arrow. At Nicholas’s instruction, Scrounge beheads the body – but leaves the arrow in – and lets Nicholas collect some of the blood. The drops hovered just above the parchment, then began to rain down lightly on the page. They arranged themselves into letters, then the letters into words, and finally the words into sentences. Wait, that makes it sound like the blood made letters first, then the letters arranged themselves properly, then the words arranged themselves… what’s wrong with just writing this out like a normal person, anyway? I take back what I said earlier about efficiency. Nicholas rolls up his letter and ties it to the arrow, then tells Scrounge to deliver the body – and the message – to the Redoubt. Scrounge flies off, and Ragnar wonders if it’s another message for the Chosen One (if it is, Nicholas really isn’t doing a good job of keeping his existence secret, is he? He is trying to do that, right? Or is trying to understand Newcomb a fool’s errand?). Nicholas admits it is, and that Princey can’t afford to ignore him now. He has a choice to make – and of course, it’s about blood. And on that note, the chapter ends.
Blood Matters: 127
Dastardly Deeds: 84
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 79
Chapter Thirty-Four
Yhani: And so, we open this chapter with Ox the Minion, who is stunned that the wizards managed to reattach his foot, though they warn him it will still be several weeks before it is fully healed. “Ox still no believe,” the dumbfounded warrior stammered. “Ox give gratitude.” *arching an eyebrow* And why does Ox speak in the third person in broken sentences, when no other Minion does any such thing? Wigg says he’s welcome, which is more manners than I would expect from him, though apparently, he and Faegan have also been listening to both Joshua and Geldon’s report about Parthalon and Shailiha’s news about Ilendium. For now, Ox is placed under Joshua’s protection, though Joshua is also to report anything suspicious he does back to Wigg – he actually assures Ox this is merely a precaution (which again, is more than I would expect…) and Ox understands. Meanwhile, Tristan wants to know why his veins are turning black (because you were poisoned?) and Faegan explains that his blood is dying. Well, it apparently does have a life of its own… Faegan and Wigg have been hunting for a possible cure, to no avail, especially considering their own powers continue to diminish. They estimate that they have no more than a month now before the Paragon dies and the world is left bereft of magic… oh dear, what a terrible loss, whatever shall we do? Meanwhile, they can only conclude that as their powers diminish, the being responsible only grows stronger. Tristan wonders if the best course of action would be for him to read the Prophecies, which they fetched the Tome so he could do, and which might have answers. Faegan, however, does not want to put the Paragon around Tristan’s neck to translate, with his blood in the condition it is – he does not know what that would do.
Tristan then wonders why the “hatchlings” destroyed Ilendium, which has no particular strategic value – Faegan wants to know what the first thing he thinks of about Ilendium is, and Shailiha has the answer (why can she not be our protagonist instead? Oh, yes, she is a woman) – marble. Tristan, of course, does not understand. “Tell me,” Faegan asked him, “have you ever, in your entire life, seen black marble with variegated veins of azure running through it? Tristan says he has not, and Wigg says he will not, ever, “Unless you go to the quarries at Ilendium, the only place it can be found. The use of that particular marble was outlawed by the Directorate over three centuries ago. Any buildings containing it were ordered knocked down, and the marble was returned to the quarries to be buried. It has never been used since. Just like the wizard’s warp that guards the entrance to the Caves of the Paragon, another guards that particular section of the quarry in which this marble can be found.” Faegan explains that this marble is dangerous, and it has to do with the Ones Who Came before. Ah, are we finally going to get some explanation of something important then, instead of countless pages of characters telling each other things that they, and we, already know about? Tristan remembers how Wigg told him the Ones were the original rulers of Eutracia and the first to master magic, how they made the Tome and Paragon; It had been their hope that mankind would learn from their teachings, following only the Vigors and using the craft strictly for the practice of good. That they wanted humanity to follow on in their footsteps on the path they set for them I would say, I think. Tristan also remembers how Wigg mentioned that the Ones had enemies, but nothing more. He wonders what this has to do with them now and… Tristan, child (Dear Heart, do not look at me like that, I am almost two hundred years old and if a thirty-year-old man acts like a child, that is what I will call him), you have been tripping over the legacy of the Ones Who Came Before for this entire book, and all of the previous one. Considering they created the Tome and prophecies, they are quite possibly the reason you exist at all. How are they relevant to you? Say rather, how are they not!
Blood Matters: 130
Gender Wars: 80
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 79 (seriously, Tristan?)
Len: Preach it, ‘Hani. Well, it turns out that the Directorate knows a lot more about the Ones than they let on (‘course they do – remember how Eutracia’s whole religion about “the Afterlife” is apparently based on scraps the wizards let slip and never bothered to correct people about? I do.) and this is a secret they kept, together with every king and queen of Eutracia in turn, for centuries. Yeah, no surprises there – elitist bastards. Princey’s angry nobody ever told him, and Faegan insists it was for his and Shailiha’s protection. Anyway, Princey was only to be told during his actual magical training. And then, should he die or otherwise fail in his attempts to join the two sides of the craft, the duty was to fall to his twin, who would then be trained, taking up the challenge. Way to remind us Shailiha’s literally just the backup here *disgusted noise* Well, it turns out all of this information comes from the Tome (‘course it does) – or, technically, not the Tome itself, but a sort of preface the Ones left with it, explaining their history. However, it is incomplete. We believe they died before being able to finish it. The Directorate presumed this was because the great cataclysm the Ones predicted finally overtook them. The Ones wrote that should this feared disaster occur, it could wipe out the vast majority of human life. We believe that this is exactly what happened, leaving only a few humans, both endowed and unendowed alike, left to roam the wreckage of the land. We also contend that it is these survivors who eventually gave rebirth to the population that now inhabits Eutracia. *rolling her eyes* Magical apocalypse, great. Who doesn’t love those? Especially since my whole damned planet is maybe teetering on the edge of one, depending on just what the Mourning actually was… maybe this hits a little too close to home, huh? Princey asks what exactly happened, and Wigg explains. Apparently a group of malcontents, bent on using the craft for their own purposes, had splintered off from these original, compassionate practitioners of the craft. They were vying for power in much the same way the sorceresses did against the wizards three centuries ago. A great, final battle ensued, and their combined use of the craft amounted to almost the total destruction of the land and the people inhabiting it. A doomsday, if you will. Their cities apparently decimated, the surviving people must have been scattered, becoming nomadic tribes or cave dwellers. We think that all forms of education and culture were virtually extinguished, including the ability to command the craft. What truly saved magic was, of course, the natural passing of endowed blood through the coming generations. But there was little possibility of practicing it or passing the knowledge down, since virtually all of the adepts had perished in the war. It was only after thousands of years had passed that nature replenished the earth and the sky. The remaining humans finally emerged from their ignorance to start again. We are the eventual result. You know, if I knew the eventual rebirth of my civilization was going to culminate in Wigg – that’d be pretty good incentive to stay in the cave, wouldn’t it?
Shailiha wants to know what magic could be so powerful, and Faegan explains that the Ones and their enemies, who’d been practicing magic for thousands of years, were vastly more powerful than the modern wizards and sorceresses. Princey then asks about the Tome – if the preface was incomplete, how do they know the Tome isn’t incomplete, too? Faegan admits the Tome may very well be incomplete… excuse me? You’ve been treating this damned thing like it’s an infallible sacred text, when you know full well it might not even be done? What, did you let the Minions do their damnedest to wipe your capital off the map because one of the Ones misplaced a comma or something and their editor died before catching it, too? What the hells is wrong with you people? Suddenly, Shailiha asks what the Ones’ enemies were called, and Wigg says they were The Guild of Heretics. *beat* ‘Scuse me. *she doubles over laughing* Okay, okay, it’s not as bad as “the Minions” but still – why not just call yourself “the Secret Lodge of Bad Guys” or something? It wouldn’t be any less blatant. Not to mention, a heretic is somebody who believes and practices wrongly, right? So apparently these people, whoever they were, named themselves for being wrong *she headdesks* Unless it was just the Ones who called them that… but then, it’s not really their name, is it?
MG: Spoilers: As we eventually learn, they’re not a guild, and they’re not heretics, so I’ve got no idea where this name came from (and, we’ll eventually learn, both the Ones and the Heretics have their own names for themselves). This is all part of The Big Retcon, which is all about the nature of the Ones and the Heretics, and we’ll get to that by the end of this chapter, so hang on.
Blood Matters: 132
Dastardly Deeds: 85 (I’m giving a point for the bad guys literally calling themselves “the Guild of Heretics”)
Exposition Intrusion: 172 (not giving a lot of points here, since it’s actually useful and appropriate exposition, but still giving some for Wigg’s and Faegan’s sheer long-windedness)
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 80 (apparently, for all the wizards know the Tome may be the equivalent of a rough draft – but they still treat it like infallible scripture anyway)
Yhani: I look forward to the explanation with bated breath. Now, where were we? Shailiha wants to know what this has to do with the marble, and so Faegan, of course, responds with a quote. “ ‘And just as the Ones left behind certain instruments of the craft, the Heretics shall also leave behind marks of their mastery. One of these shall flow as azure through the darkness, and lay in wait for the coming of he who can release its power upon the land,’ ” This is from the Preface, and it leads Wigg and Faegan to deduce that their enemy is attempting to construct the Gates of Dawn (and so we have our title!). Whatever these Gates may be, they can only be constructed from the black marble, for the blue – forgive me, azure – streaks it contains are actually the preserved blood of the Heretics themselves. Tristan insists that blood cannot be stone (has the good prince considered magic?) so Faegan has another quote. “ ‘And before they perish, the Heretics will perfect the Art of Transposition, thereby converting their life force to stone . . . The resultant perfection shall be embedded into the living rock, and used to facilitate their return,’ ” This, apparently, was a warning the Ones left. Tristan is stunned by the implications of the Heretics’ return (does he not realize that ancient evils always want to return? In fact, he faced one such return just this last year…), so Wigg explains. Apparently, the Ones and the Heretics eventually delved into the study of the Afterlife, and following their cataclysmic war, ascended there. They now possess power far exceeding that of mortal wizards but have difficulty wielding it directly in the material world – unless they could find some way back. The Tome describes them as those who shall reside in the sky and explains that their return would require a being of immense power to facilitate it. They can only presume that all of what they have been facing – Ragnar and his unseen master, the diminishing power of the Paragon, the attack on Ilendium – are all part of facilitating the construction of the Gates and the Heretics return to mortal life. “Due to the fact that the Heretics worship and practice only the Vagaries, they would probably see us as inconsequential, killing us all,” Wigg answered. “And there would be absolutely nothing we could do to stop them. The craft would no longer exist as we know it, for they would never employ the Vigors. In fact, they would probably do all they could to stamp out forever the compassionate side of the craft. As for the unendowed population as a whole, I can only assume the Heretics would consider them to be the lowest forms of life. As such, they might do away with them altogether.” As opposed to certain other parties, who took it upon themselves to manage everyone else’s lives as they saw fit for centuries… but I digress.
Shailiha wants to know how this could happen, so Wigg explains what is needed. The Gates themselves must be constructed of the black marble from Ilendium. A being of immense power must be present to activate the Gates once they are built. And the trigger for the Gates is, of course, powerfully endowed blood. The Tome states that once energized, the azure of the marble returns to its previous state—that is, the blood of the Heretics. The details of all of this are still very unclear to us, but apparently the Heretics will be drawn to this empowerment of their blood, and then somehow be able to descend from the heavens. Their spirits would then pass through the Gates, regaining their bodies, rejoining the world of the living in the same powerful, fully human forms they enjoyed before perishing in their struggle with the Ones. But this time they would be alone on the earth, without the Ones to oppose them… This rebellious offshoot of the original harnessers and employers of the craft would make the comparatively limited abilities of the Coven seem as mere child’s play.” Faegan has correctly deduced that Ragnar is not the being who will activate the Gates, but merely a pawn for a greater power (perhaps Ragnar should not have revealed himself and his plans, and allowed the wizards to deduce almost immediately that he had a backer then, hmmm?). And indeed, Tristan remembers the unseen being in the Caves, and deduces that must be their enemy. Wigg reiterates that the Heretics left behind their blood, just as the Ones left the Tome and Paragon, to insure their legacy. An interest in the marble is the only thing that explains the destruction of Ilendium. This also might play into why Scrounge set up the wanted posters and recruited people to hunt Tristan – not only to try and capture him, but to keep him alive. It was then that Tristan suddenly understood. “They wanted me safe so that nothing would befall me before they were able to take my blood,” he replied softly. “Keeping me here, among the wizards, was the best way to accomplish that. The posters and reward were intended to drive me underground. And they worked.” He looked up to Faegan, the muscles in his jaw tense. “That is why they wanted my blood, isn’t it?” he asked slowly. “It is my azure blood that they plan to use to empower the Gates of Dawn.” I admit that this logic makes little sense to me – but then again, perhaps an inability to follow Scrounge or Wigg’s thought processes is a positive sign.
Contrivances and Coincidences: 38
Exposition Intrusion: 175
Blood Matters: 135
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 81
Len: Yeah, me too, ‘Hani, me too. Faegan agrees that Princey’s blood is the finest they’ve ever seen – blegh – and that it would make ideal fuel for the Gates. As for blinding Wigg, well that was probably all on Ragnar, who hates him. Though they don’t know why Princey was poisoned – probably preparing him for the Vagaries or some nonsense like that, would be my guess. Wigg theorizes that the consuls are probably being used to mine the marble, which is virtually impossible to do by normal means, and whoever is draining the Paragon is trying to empower themselves as much as they can before the ritual. As for who this being is, why they raided Fledgling House, and why they let Wigg have the Tome, they’ve got no idea. Hey, who wants to bet the author was making it all up as he went along, and was trying to figure out how it all fit together as he went? Anyone? Shailiha then asks about the Art of Transposition, the spell the Heretics used to turn their blood to stone, which apparently the wizards can’t do – they can conjure objects from thin air, but that’s actually easier, not harder… for some damned reason. “At first glance one would suppose that creating something out of nothing would be far more difficult than the mere changing of one thing into another. But in fact, the exact opposite is true. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that it has to do with overcoming the strength of an object’s present existence, rather than overcoming the relative weakness of nothingness. Do you see? When the Art of Transposition causes the veins of the marble to revert back to the blood of the Heretics, this shall be an example of the craft that will have no previous equal in its complexity. It shall be something never before seen upon the earth.” The wizard thought to himself for a moment. “Or, should I say, at least since the discovery of the stone and the Tome, and the enlightenment of the wizards. It is yet more proof of the hugely advanced abilities of those who were here before us.” *wearily* Whatever you say, old man. Whatever you say. I’m too tired to argue at this point.
Anyway, it also turns out that the Ones can’t return, since they never thought to leave any of their blood behind, so they don’t have an anchor. Seems like a damned big oversight, if you ask me. Though it may also be that this spell can only be performed with the Vagaries – which would make more sense if in all his yammering about endowed blood and forestallments, Newcomb had ever bothered to explain how the powers of the Vigors and Vagaries are actually different. Princey does wonder if the Ones might have left any other artifacts behind, but Wigg says the Directorate have searched but never found anything, so that’s a bust. Princey thinks to himself that the wizards’ knowledge seems endless, but it’s only a fraction of what the Ones and Heretics knew… kid, there’s a certain saying about the difference between knowledge and wisdom that comes to mind here, and let’s just say that nobody in these damned books has the second one. Anyway, they still don’t know anything about the Heretics’ proxy, but Princey’s decided it’s all the more important that he go to Parthalon and recruit the Minions. Faegan reluctantly admits it may be the only chance they stand against Scrounge, Ragnar and their creatures. Meanwhile, Faegan has one more thing to ask. “I’m listening,” Tristan said, folding his arms across the worn leather of his vest. He had long ago made up his mind to go, and he didn’t like demands, especially when they came from the wizards. Even as a child, he had always hated constraints of any type placed upon his movements. The look in his dark blue eyes told Faegan that whatever it was they wanted him to swallow, it would not go down easily. Yeah, that explains a lot about last book, doesn’t it? So, the wizards are assigning Princey a bodyguard, over his protests. He’s sick, and besides, for all they know Traax is planning to kill him as soon as he arrives in Parthalon to take over command of the Minions for himself, like Princey took it from Kluge… which is, you know, an excellent point. So, they’re sending Ox with him (wait, Ox is a Minion – wouldn’t he be more likely to side with Traax?). Princey wonders what good he’ll be, so Wigg explains they can’t spare a wizard, but the Minions might take him more seriously if he had Ox with him. Princey can say no – but Faegan’s the only one who can open a portal, so if he does, he’s not going anywhere. Finally, Shailiha begs him to do it for her sake, and he finally resents. You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a man as determined to not be helped as Princey here…
Blood Matters: 137
Exposition Intrusion: 177
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 84
Yhani: And so, Wigg explains that Tristan must recruit the Minions and bring them back to Eutracia – and he must do so without letting them see him have another seizure, since they respect strength above all else. The conversation is then interrupted by Geldon, who brings in a bucket that is soaked with blood. He places it on the table, and reveals that it contains a human head with a message – ah, is this the one from the previous chapter? That certainly was fast. We have a brief description of the head, which I will spare you from, and the message itself, which is written in blood but is not, for once, terrible poetry – instead it is an unintelligible mass of strange letters and symbols. Faegan identifies it as Old Eutracian, the language of the Tome, of the Ones – and, presumably, of the Heretics. Faegan performs a spell, and concludes the dead man was likely a consul, since the head was still coated in black marble dust from the Ilendium quarries, confirming the wizards’ suspicions. Wigg wonders if Tristan is ever going to ask him how he learned Old Eutracian when it is a dead language – clearly, this is not a man who ever learned to shut up about his own supposed cleverness – and Tristan finally does. At last, he deduces the obvious and realizes that since the Tome is written in the same language, they must have learned to translate it when Emily, the future Natasha, first learned to read the Tome (no thanks, I will add, to her father…). Faegan gloats how Emily could both read Old Eutracian and speak it aloud, so the wizards all learned from her. As if he has any right to take credit for it… And so, Tristan hands the scroll to Faegan, who reads it aloud and then translates. I am the power behind the glow, and I am the one you seek. I am also he who has caused the wailing and torment of your nation. Have you not felt yourself drawn to me? Have you not already seen my face? There is much for us to discuss, Chosen One. I am in the Caves. Come to me tonight. Come and much shall be revealed. Leave your wizards behind in their useless pursuit of the answers. For their inferior, unenlightened gifts are useless to beings such as we. Well, at least it is not more terrible poetry? On the other hand, it does seem that Nicholas, having gone to such lengths to hide his identity – has chosen to reveal his identity, almost immediately after setting up Ragnar as the apparent mastermind. And I thought these characters could become no more foolish…
The wizards immediately conclude that this was not written by Scrounge, and probably not by Ragnar. Tristan admits that when he had his seizure, he had a vision where he did see this person – a young man with dark hair, barely more than a boy, who he was inexplicably drawn to. Dear Tristan… please. That is your son. He now claims that he can literally feel Nicholas in his blood, as if their hearts are beating in tandem, and by my Ancestors, you are making it worse! Wigg and Faegan think that he should go, while Shailiha, proving once again that she is the only character with a modicum of sense, thinks they have gone mad. Tristan thinks he is already fatally poisoned, and if their enemies wanted to kill him, they could do so at any time – at least this way, he might learn something from the encounter. At the very least, Ox should go with him, but Tristan insists on going alone. She wants to know why he is so eager, and he only says they take after each other. …if I were Shailiha, I would feel insulted. He will leave before the hour is over… and as the chapter ends, Shailiha is somehow certain she will never see him again.
MG: Okay, before moving on to our final (short) chapter for the day, we need to talk. It’s time to finally explain The Big Retcon, now that we have all the necessary pieces to understand it with the introduction of the Heretics. So, the Heretics are obviously the beings who first appeared at the end of Fifth Sorceress and are the ultimate power behind Nicholas. They’re also our overarching Big Bads for the whole series. Unfortunately, they’re also just about the dullest ancient force of evil I’ve ever read about. They’re big, they’re bad, they speak in cryptic nonsense, they live in the afterlife and want to come back to life… and that’s about it. They have no individual character, no real personality, and they’re so far removed from the actual plane the story takes place on they don’t have much menace, either. They’re just… there. And they’re bad, we swear. And no, I have no idea why they called the Coven their servants, when so far as we know Failee was only ever working for herself and never seems to have been in contact with the Heretics.
Well, that’s how the next couple of books will present them, anyway. The second trilogy, especially the last two books, will retcon all this away. It turns out – the Heretics don’t live in the Afterlife! In fact, they’re not even dead, and never were! Neither are the Ones! Instead, they’re mortal human beings who live in two empires on the other side of the Tolenka Mountains where they’re locked in constant war with each other, and while Eutracia and Parthalon may have been devastated by that ancient war, the actually core territories of the two empires are fine (Parthalon and Eutracia, by the way, are basically a laboratory for creating Chosen Ones, which is why the Tolenkas were raised in the first place to wall them off). Oh, and based on the dimensions given for the territory the two empires are fighting over – the planet this story takes place on must be several times larger than the Earth, at least. Yay for what’s probably bad authorial math. So, the Ones are actually called Shashidans, and the Heretics are Rustannicans – the Ones are fantasy!Japanese, and the Heretics are fantasy!Romans. Why and how a Japan expy and a Rome expy arose from two factions of the same people is never explained, especially since the leaders of both sides have been around from the beginning and are all tens of thousands of years old, due to time enchantments. So, yeah, what everyone in Eutracia calls “the Afterlife” is no such thing – it’s just another region on the same planet, inhabited by perfectly normal mortal people (whose leaders on both sides happen to be obscenely powerful wizards, admittedly). The weirdest thing is… this isn’t treated as a retcon. Everyone acts like this is just a perfectly logical extension of what they know about the Heretics, even though it literally isn’t. Also, this makes Nicholas’s plan make no sense. There Heretics don’t need to come back to life – they’re already alive! They don’t need to come to Eutracia, and they don’t want to – from their perspective, it’s a pointless backwater (the Chosen One is a Shashidan project, after all; to the extent they have any interest in Eutracia, it’s just killing Tristan before their enemies can use him). They don’t even need Nicholas – they’ve got their own evil version of Tristan they’re grooming as their own dark messiah back in Rustannica right now, and I’ve got no idea how they brought Nicholas back to life or gave him all the knowledge and power he possesses (and he’s certainly not been to the Afterlife while he was dead since, uh, it’s not actually an afterlife…). So, all this is completely pointless. To add insult to injury – the Chosen One prophecy has nothing to do with Eutracia. The Shashidan wizards made it up to try and create someone who could end their war with Rustannica, reunify both nations, and then become emperor of both; Eutracia isn’t part of that, and neither is combining the Vigors and Vagaries (and everyone is… weirdly okay with this when they find out). I wasn’t kidding about Eutracia as a country literally just being a Chosen One-creation-laboratory. So, as far as what turns out to be the actual point of the series (unless Newcomb, if he was given a chance to write the third trilogy, would retcon the whole thing away again, which is entirely possible…) has exactly nothing to do with anything we’ve seen so far. Isn’t this just such a great and well-thought-out series, everyone? Anyway, we’ve got one more, short chapter to do while we’re here, so let’s get to it!
Blood Matters: 137
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 88
Chapter Thirty-Five
Len: Well, we open with Ragnar, again, as he walks into Fledgling House. He takes a moment to look around, thinking about how idyllic the place is (or, I guess, was) and also notes that it’s all pink, how appropriate for little girls. *rolling her eyes* Yeah, ‘cause we all know girls are just… inherently predisposed to like pink. Dammit, Newcomb. Anyway, the place is guarded by hatchlings now as he makes his way through the building, giving pointlessly detailed descriptions of everything he passes. He makes his way through the dormitories, wondering why Nicholas wanted him here, and at last finds Nicholas himself, who’s meditating in midair surrounded by coffinlike boxes. When Ragnar gets closer, he sees that inside each box is a child and, dammit Newcomb, am I going to have to punch someone today? Each of the children is hooked up by a transparent tube to a sphere in the center of the room. Ragnar can see that the spheres are drawing blood from the children *she hisses angrily* but he can’t tell why, just that he’s never seen so much endowed blood in one place. Nicholas explains he’s taking as much as he can without hurting the children, a little each day. So, there’s that, at least. So much beautiful, endowed blood! At this rate, it’ll take weeks before he has enough for his purposes. But still, the potential collected in this bowl is infinitesimal compared to the sanguine fluid of myself and the Chosen One, my father of this world. Apparently, he needs it for part of the ritual to prepare the Gates, and the blood of children with little training is best. Nicholas assures Ragnar that the children are in no pain, and afterwards remember nothing of the experience. Damn… he’s evil, but he’s more humane than I’d think our alleged “good guys” would be in this situation… Meanwhile, the consuls are still mining, the next generation of scarabs are hatching, and Nicholas has more work to do. He releases one of the children, who indeed sits up and laughs happily, then has Ragnar come and walk with him. Nicholas tells him he’s going to the Caves to meet someone, then flies off under his own power, to Ragnar’s continued amazement. Ragnar calls for some hatchlings to tend to the children, then realizes he needs his brain fluid, since it’s apparently been a while. *she makes a face* He then starts fantasizing about his sex slave from last time, and how she’s no Celeste but for now she’ll “do,” and on that revolting note, the chapter ends. Yay.
MG: Well, the most important thing about these chapters was that we learned a whole lot of lore about who our villains are, what they want, and what they’re trying to do, almost all of which will be either erased or made entirely irrelevant later on, so… yay for that? And our bad guys are still very evil, news at eleven. Anyway, next time, in a stunning display of incompetence from both characters (which, considering their track records, is saying something), Tristan meets Nicholas. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Blood Matters: 142
Contrivances and Coincidences: 38
Dastardly Deeds: 87
Exposition Intrusion: 179
Gender Wars: 81
Gratuitous Grimdark: 57
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 89
I’ve also recently resumed my reread and commentary on the (in)famous epic Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic Embers which can be found here if you’re interested!
Warning: These chapters contain a death and the abuse of children.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to ring in the new year as we continue our journey through Robert Newcomb’s The Gates of Dawn! Last time, Scrounge wiped out a city, Nicholas got new orders, and Joshua and Geldon came back, with Ox in tow. Today, the truth is revealed… until Newcomb decides to retcon it all away in the second trilogy, at least! Joining us as usual will be Len and Yhani!
Chapter Thirty-Three
Len: *flatly* And we’re just so thrilled to be here, trust me. Well, we open with Ragnar, who’s thrilled to watch the thousands of consuls employing the craft for the benefit of the young adept. Wait, there’s thousands of consuls? The hells? I thought there were maybe a few hundred at most… damn. Wigg had this kind of resources, and he still screwed everything up. Ragnar’s so excited to see… whatever this is unfold, he’s even brought out his fancy chair to sit in and watch, along with a bunch of food and wine and his sex slave from last time to sit at his feet and feed it to him. *flatly* Yay. It’s apparently the day after the destruction of Ilendium, and dawn had burst forth into beauty (excuse me?); Ragnar’s apparently had to keep dusting some black gunk off his robes, but he doesn’t mind, ‘cause it’s the forbidden material of the ancients, whatever that means. He gloats for a bit to himself about how it’ll soon be unearthed, and he takes some of his brain fluid as he watches the consuls working in the marble quarries. The stone had made the province of Ephyra, despite her relatively small geographical size, one of the richest in the nation. That had been the way of things until the coming of the Coven and the subsequent collapse of both the government and the economy. Since then, the quarries had remained still. Until today. Yeah, ‘cause these people never do anything for themselves without a wizard to tell them to, we know. But Ragnar now knows what Nicholas is after, and he watches as three thousand consuls – sweet Sovereigns, give me that many wizards and I’m pretty sure I could knock over any country in my world, including Six-damned Riedra* - use magic to mine a section of the marble the Directorate had apparently forbidden anyone to touch. Their dirty faces emotionless masks of servitude and their movements autonomic, they toiled unceasingly at the harvesting of the beautiful stone. Which sure sounds like mind control to me. More forestallments, probably. *she rolls her eyes*
*MG’s Note: In the Eberron setting Len is from, Riedra is a very large, repressive and powerful empire that rules most of a continent.
Len: Ragnar perks up as he watches the consuls blast more of the marble free, sending dark, rather ominous-looking soot into the air, and he thinks to himself that this marble – which is full of azure veins, ‘cause of course it is – is very valuable, and the thing Nicholas needs above all to accomplish his goals. Meanwhile, the “hatchlings” circle overhead with Scrounge riding one of them, while Nicholas himself is down in the quarry supervising (wait, shouldn’t Ragnar be down in the quarry supervising while Nicholas sits up on the throne watching everything? Which of you is in charge here, anyway? This is basic evil overlord stuff!). Suddenly Nicholas levitates himself out of the pit and over to Ragnar, assuring him that everything is going well and complimenting him and Scrounge on their execution of the attack. Apparently, everyone in Ilendium was slaughtered just for being inconvenient and now Nicholas can work in piece, and… huh, that’s actually kind of chilling in a way none of the constant descriptions of Ragnar in all his grossness have managed. And Ilendium can also be used as the site for the next stage of their plan, so yay for efficiency? Nicholas calls Scrounge over and has him bring them a consul; he does so, and Nicholas then has Scrounge kill the poor bastard by shooting him with a poisoned arrow. At Nicholas’s instruction, Scrounge beheads the body – but leaves the arrow in – and lets Nicholas collect some of the blood. The drops hovered just above the parchment, then began to rain down lightly on the page. They arranged themselves into letters, then the letters into words, and finally the words into sentences. Wait, that makes it sound like the blood made letters first, then the letters arranged themselves properly, then the words arranged themselves… what’s wrong with just writing this out like a normal person, anyway? I take back what I said earlier about efficiency. Nicholas rolls up his letter and ties it to the arrow, then tells Scrounge to deliver the body – and the message – to the Redoubt. Scrounge flies off, and Ragnar wonders if it’s another message for the Chosen One (if it is, Nicholas really isn’t doing a good job of keeping his existence secret, is he? He is trying to do that, right? Or is trying to understand Newcomb a fool’s errand?). Nicholas admits it is, and that Princey can’t afford to ignore him now. He has a choice to make – and of course, it’s about blood. And on that note, the chapter ends.
Blood Matters: 127
Dastardly Deeds: 84
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 79
Chapter Thirty-Four
Yhani: And so, we open this chapter with Ox the Minion, who is stunned that the wizards managed to reattach his foot, though they warn him it will still be several weeks before it is fully healed. “Ox still no believe,” the dumbfounded warrior stammered. “Ox give gratitude.” *arching an eyebrow* And why does Ox speak in the third person in broken sentences, when no other Minion does any such thing? Wigg says he’s welcome, which is more manners than I would expect from him, though apparently, he and Faegan have also been listening to both Joshua and Geldon’s report about Parthalon and Shailiha’s news about Ilendium. For now, Ox is placed under Joshua’s protection, though Joshua is also to report anything suspicious he does back to Wigg – he actually assures Ox this is merely a precaution (which again, is more than I would expect…) and Ox understands. Meanwhile, Tristan wants to know why his veins are turning black (because you were poisoned?) and Faegan explains that his blood is dying. Well, it apparently does have a life of its own… Faegan and Wigg have been hunting for a possible cure, to no avail, especially considering their own powers continue to diminish. They estimate that they have no more than a month now before the Paragon dies and the world is left bereft of magic… oh dear, what a terrible loss, whatever shall we do? Meanwhile, they can only conclude that as their powers diminish, the being responsible only grows stronger. Tristan wonders if the best course of action would be for him to read the Prophecies, which they fetched the Tome so he could do, and which might have answers. Faegan, however, does not want to put the Paragon around Tristan’s neck to translate, with his blood in the condition it is – he does not know what that would do.
Tristan then wonders why the “hatchlings” destroyed Ilendium, which has no particular strategic value – Faegan wants to know what the first thing he thinks of about Ilendium is, and Shailiha has the answer (why can she not be our protagonist instead? Oh, yes, she is a woman) – marble. Tristan, of course, does not understand. “Tell me,” Faegan asked him, “have you ever, in your entire life, seen black marble with variegated veins of azure running through it? Tristan says he has not, and Wigg says he will not, ever, “Unless you go to the quarries at Ilendium, the only place it can be found. The use of that particular marble was outlawed by the Directorate over three centuries ago. Any buildings containing it were ordered knocked down, and the marble was returned to the quarries to be buried. It has never been used since. Just like the wizard’s warp that guards the entrance to the Caves of the Paragon, another guards that particular section of the quarry in which this marble can be found.” Faegan explains that this marble is dangerous, and it has to do with the Ones Who Came before. Ah, are we finally going to get some explanation of something important then, instead of countless pages of characters telling each other things that they, and we, already know about? Tristan remembers how Wigg told him the Ones were the original rulers of Eutracia and the first to master magic, how they made the Tome and Paragon; It had been their hope that mankind would learn from their teachings, following only the Vigors and using the craft strictly for the practice of good. That they wanted humanity to follow on in their footsteps on the path they set for them I would say, I think. Tristan also remembers how Wigg mentioned that the Ones had enemies, but nothing more. He wonders what this has to do with them now and… Tristan, child (Dear Heart, do not look at me like that, I am almost two hundred years old and if a thirty-year-old man acts like a child, that is what I will call him), you have been tripping over the legacy of the Ones Who Came Before for this entire book, and all of the previous one. Considering they created the Tome and prophecies, they are quite possibly the reason you exist at all. How are they relevant to you? Say rather, how are they not!
Blood Matters: 130
Gender Wars: 80
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 79 (seriously, Tristan?)
Len: Preach it, ‘Hani. Well, it turns out that the Directorate knows a lot more about the Ones than they let on (‘course they do – remember how Eutracia’s whole religion about “the Afterlife” is apparently based on scraps the wizards let slip and never bothered to correct people about? I do.) and this is a secret they kept, together with every king and queen of Eutracia in turn, for centuries. Yeah, no surprises there – elitist bastards. Princey’s angry nobody ever told him, and Faegan insists it was for his and Shailiha’s protection. Anyway, Princey was only to be told during his actual magical training. And then, should he die or otherwise fail in his attempts to join the two sides of the craft, the duty was to fall to his twin, who would then be trained, taking up the challenge. Way to remind us Shailiha’s literally just the backup here *disgusted noise* Well, it turns out all of this information comes from the Tome (‘course it does) – or, technically, not the Tome itself, but a sort of preface the Ones left with it, explaining their history. However, it is incomplete. We believe they died before being able to finish it. The Directorate presumed this was because the great cataclysm the Ones predicted finally overtook them. The Ones wrote that should this feared disaster occur, it could wipe out the vast majority of human life. We believe that this is exactly what happened, leaving only a few humans, both endowed and unendowed alike, left to roam the wreckage of the land. We also contend that it is these survivors who eventually gave rebirth to the population that now inhabits Eutracia. *rolling her eyes* Magical apocalypse, great. Who doesn’t love those? Especially since my whole damned planet is maybe teetering on the edge of one, depending on just what the Mourning actually was… maybe this hits a little too close to home, huh? Princey asks what exactly happened, and Wigg explains. Apparently a group of malcontents, bent on using the craft for their own purposes, had splintered off from these original, compassionate practitioners of the craft. They were vying for power in much the same way the sorceresses did against the wizards three centuries ago. A great, final battle ensued, and their combined use of the craft amounted to almost the total destruction of the land and the people inhabiting it. A doomsday, if you will. Their cities apparently decimated, the surviving people must have been scattered, becoming nomadic tribes or cave dwellers. We think that all forms of education and culture were virtually extinguished, including the ability to command the craft. What truly saved magic was, of course, the natural passing of endowed blood through the coming generations. But there was little possibility of practicing it or passing the knowledge down, since virtually all of the adepts had perished in the war. It was only after thousands of years had passed that nature replenished the earth and the sky. The remaining humans finally emerged from their ignorance to start again. We are the eventual result. You know, if I knew the eventual rebirth of my civilization was going to culminate in Wigg – that’d be pretty good incentive to stay in the cave, wouldn’t it?
Shailiha wants to know what magic could be so powerful, and Faegan explains that the Ones and their enemies, who’d been practicing magic for thousands of years, were vastly more powerful than the modern wizards and sorceresses. Princey then asks about the Tome – if the preface was incomplete, how do they know the Tome isn’t incomplete, too? Faegan admits the Tome may very well be incomplete… excuse me? You’ve been treating this damned thing like it’s an infallible sacred text, when you know full well it might not even be done? What, did you let the Minions do their damnedest to wipe your capital off the map because one of the Ones misplaced a comma or something and their editor died before catching it, too? What the hells is wrong with you people? Suddenly, Shailiha asks what the Ones’ enemies were called, and Wigg says they were The Guild of Heretics. *beat* ‘Scuse me. *she doubles over laughing* Okay, okay, it’s not as bad as “the Minions” but still – why not just call yourself “the Secret Lodge of Bad Guys” or something? It wouldn’t be any less blatant. Not to mention, a heretic is somebody who believes and practices wrongly, right? So apparently these people, whoever they were, named themselves for being wrong *she headdesks* Unless it was just the Ones who called them that… but then, it’s not really their name, is it?
MG: Spoilers: As we eventually learn, they’re not a guild, and they’re not heretics, so I’ve got no idea where this name came from (and, we’ll eventually learn, both the Ones and the Heretics have their own names for themselves). This is all part of The Big Retcon, which is all about the nature of the Ones and the Heretics, and we’ll get to that by the end of this chapter, so hang on.
Blood Matters: 132
Dastardly Deeds: 85 (I’m giving a point for the bad guys literally calling themselves “the Guild of Heretics”)
Exposition Intrusion: 172 (not giving a lot of points here, since it’s actually useful and appropriate exposition, but still giving some for Wigg’s and Faegan’s sheer long-windedness)
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 80 (apparently, for all the wizards know the Tome may be the equivalent of a rough draft – but they still treat it like infallible scripture anyway)
Yhani: I look forward to the explanation with bated breath. Now, where were we? Shailiha wants to know what this has to do with the marble, and so Faegan, of course, responds with a quote. “ ‘And just as the Ones left behind certain instruments of the craft, the Heretics shall also leave behind marks of their mastery. One of these shall flow as azure through the darkness, and lay in wait for the coming of he who can release its power upon the land,’ ” This is from the Preface, and it leads Wigg and Faegan to deduce that their enemy is attempting to construct the Gates of Dawn (and so we have our title!). Whatever these Gates may be, they can only be constructed from the black marble, for the blue – forgive me, azure – streaks it contains are actually the preserved blood of the Heretics themselves. Tristan insists that blood cannot be stone (has the good prince considered magic?) so Faegan has another quote. “ ‘And before they perish, the Heretics will perfect the Art of Transposition, thereby converting their life force to stone . . . The resultant perfection shall be embedded into the living rock, and used to facilitate their return,’ ” This, apparently, was a warning the Ones left. Tristan is stunned by the implications of the Heretics’ return (does he not realize that ancient evils always want to return? In fact, he faced one such return just this last year…), so Wigg explains. Apparently, the Ones and the Heretics eventually delved into the study of the Afterlife, and following their cataclysmic war, ascended there. They now possess power far exceeding that of mortal wizards but have difficulty wielding it directly in the material world – unless they could find some way back. The Tome describes them as those who shall reside in the sky and explains that their return would require a being of immense power to facilitate it. They can only presume that all of what they have been facing – Ragnar and his unseen master, the diminishing power of the Paragon, the attack on Ilendium – are all part of facilitating the construction of the Gates and the Heretics return to mortal life. “Due to the fact that the Heretics worship and practice only the Vagaries, they would probably see us as inconsequential, killing us all,” Wigg answered. “And there would be absolutely nothing we could do to stop them. The craft would no longer exist as we know it, for they would never employ the Vigors. In fact, they would probably do all they could to stamp out forever the compassionate side of the craft. As for the unendowed population as a whole, I can only assume the Heretics would consider them to be the lowest forms of life. As such, they might do away with them altogether.” As opposed to certain other parties, who took it upon themselves to manage everyone else’s lives as they saw fit for centuries… but I digress.
Shailiha wants to know how this could happen, so Wigg explains what is needed. The Gates themselves must be constructed of the black marble from Ilendium. A being of immense power must be present to activate the Gates once they are built. And the trigger for the Gates is, of course, powerfully endowed blood. The Tome states that once energized, the azure of the marble returns to its previous state—that is, the blood of the Heretics. The details of all of this are still very unclear to us, but apparently the Heretics will be drawn to this empowerment of their blood, and then somehow be able to descend from the heavens. Their spirits would then pass through the Gates, regaining their bodies, rejoining the world of the living in the same powerful, fully human forms they enjoyed before perishing in their struggle with the Ones. But this time they would be alone on the earth, without the Ones to oppose them… This rebellious offshoot of the original harnessers and employers of the craft would make the comparatively limited abilities of the Coven seem as mere child’s play.” Faegan has correctly deduced that Ragnar is not the being who will activate the Gates, but merely a pawn for a greater power (perhaps Ragnar should not have revealed himself and his plans, and allowed the wizards to deduce almost immediately that he had a backer then, hmmm?). And indeed, Tristan remembers the unseen being in the Caves, and deduces that must be their enemy. Wigg reiterates that the Heretics left behind their blood, just as the Ones left the Tome and Paragon, to insure their legacy. An interest in the marble is the only thing that explains the destruction of Ilendium. This also might play into why Scrounge set up the wanted posters and recruited people to hunt Tristan – not only to try and capture him, but to keep him alive. It was then that Tristan suddenly understood. “They wanted me safe so that nothing would befall me before they were able to take my blood,” he replied softly. “Keeping me here, among the wizards, was the best way to accomplish that. The posters and reward were intended to drive me underground. And they worked.” He looked up to Faegan, the muscles in his jaw tense. “That is why they wanted my blood, isn’t it?” he asked slowly. “It is my azure blood that they plan to use to empower the Gates of Dawn.” I admit that this logic makes little sense to me – but then again, perhaps an inability to follow Scrounge or Wigg’s thought processes is a positive sign.
Contrivances and Coincidences: 38
Exposition Intrusion: 175
Blood Matters: 135
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 81
Len: Yeah, me too, ‘Hani, me too. Faegan agrees that Princey’s blood is the finest they’ve ever seen – blegh – and that it would make ideal fuel for the Gates. As for blinding Wigg, well that was probably all on Ragnar, who hates him. Though they don’t know why Princey was poisoned – probably preparing him for the Vagaries or some nonsense like that, would be my guess. Wigg theorizes that the consuls are probably being used to mine the marble, which is virtually impossible to do by normal means, and whoever is draining the Paragon is trying to empower themselves as much as they can before the ritual. As for who this being is, why they raided Fledgling House, and why they let Wigg have the Tome, they’ve got no idea. Hey, who wants to bet the author was making it all up as he went along, and was trying to figure out how it all fit together as he went? Anyone? Shailiha then asks about the Art of Transposition, the spell the Heretics used to turn their blood to stone, which apparently the wizards can’t do – they can conjure objects from thin air, but that’s actually easier, not harder… for some damned reason. “At first glance one would suppose that creating something out of nothing would be far more difficult than the mere changing of one thing into another. But in fact, the exact opposite is true. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that it has to do with overcoming the strength of an object’s present existence, rather than overcoming the relative weakness of nothingness. Do you see? When the Art of Transposition causes the veins of the marble to revert back to the blood of the Heretics, this shall be an example of the craft that will have no previous equal in its complexity. It shall be something never before seen upon the earth.” The wizard thought to himself for a moment. “Or, should I say, at least since the discovery of the stone and the Tome, and the enlightenment of the wizards. It is yet more proof of the hugely advanced abilities of those who were here before us.” *wearily* Whatever you say, old man. Whatever you say. I’m too tired to argue at this point.
Anyway, it also turns out that the Ones can’t return, since they never thought to leave any of their blood behind, so they don’t have an anchor. Seems like a damned big oversight, if you ask me. Though it may also be that this spell can only be performed with the Vagaries – which would make more sense if in all his yammering about endowed blood and forestallments, Newcomb had ever bothered to explain how the powers of the Vigors and Vagaries are actually different. Princey does wonder if the Ones might have left any other artifacts behind, but Wigg says the Directorate have searched but never found anything, so that’s a bust. Princey thinks to himself that the wizards’ knowledge seems endless, but it’s only a fraction of what the Ones and Heretics knew… kid, there’s a certain saying about the difference between knowledge and wisdom that comes to mind here, and let’s just say that nobody in these damned books has the second one. Anyway, they still don’t know anything about the Heretics’ proxy, but Princey’s decided it’s all the more important that he go to Parthalon and recruit the Minions. Faegan reluctantly admits it may be the only chance they stand against Scrounge, Ragnar and their creatures. Meanwhile, Faegan has one more thing to ask. “I’m listening,” Tristan said, folding his arms across the worn leather of his vest. He had long ago made up his mind to go, and he didn’t like demands, especially when they came from the wizards. Even as a child, he had always hated constraints of any type placed upon his movements. The look in his dark blue eyes told Faegan that whatever it was they wanted him to swallow, it would not go down easily. Yeah, that explains a lot about last book, doesn’t it? So, the wizards are assigning Princey a bodyguard, over his protests. He’s sick, and besides, for all they know Traax is planning to kill him as soon as he arrives in Parthalon to take over command of the Minions for himself, like Princey took it from Kluge… which is, you know, an excellent point. So, they’re sending Ox with him (wait, Ox is a Minion – wouldn’t he be more likely to side with Traax?). Princey wonders what good he’ll be, so Wigg explains they can’t spare a wizard, but the Minions might take him more seriously if he had Ox with him. Princey can say no – but Faegan’s the only one who can open a portal, so if he does, he’s not going anywhere. Finally, Shailiha begs him to do it for her sake, and he finally resents. You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a man as determined to not be helped as Princey here…
Blood Matters: 137
Exposition Intrusion: 177
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 84
Yhani: And so, Wigg explains that Tristan must recruit the Minions and bring them back to Eutracia – and he must do so without letting them see him have another seizure, since they respect strength above all else. The conversation is then interrupted by Geldon, who brings in a bucket that is soaked with blood. He places it on the table, and reveals that it contains a human head with a message – ah, is this the one from the previous chapter? That certainly was fast. We have a brief description of the head, which I will spare you from, and the message itself, which is written in blood but is not, for once, terrible poetry – instead it is an unintelligible mass of strange letters and symbols. Faegan identifies it as Old Eutracian, the language of the Tome, of the Ones – and, presumably, of the Heretics. Faegan performs a spell, and concludes the dead man was likely a consul, since the head was still coated in black marble dust from the Ilendium quarries, confirming the wizards’ suspicions. Wigg wonders if Tristan is ever going to ask him how he learned Old Eutracian when it is a dead language – clearly, this is not a man who ever learned to shut up about his own supposed cleverness – and Tristan finally does. At last, he deduces the obvious and realizes that since the Tome is written in the same language, they must have learned to translate it when Emily, the future Natasha, first learned to read the Tome (no thanks, I will add, to her father…). Faegan gloats how Emily could both read Old Eutracian and speak it aloud, so the wizards all learned from her. As if he has any right to take credit for it… And so, Tristan hands the scroll to Faegan, who reads it aloud and then translates. I am the power behind the glow, and I am the one you seek. I am also he who has caused the wailing and torment of your nation. Have you not felt yourself drawn to me? Have you not already seen my face? There is much for us to discuss, Chosen One. I am in the Caves. Come to me tonight. Come and much shall be revealed. Leave your wizards behind in their useless pursuit of the answers. For their inferior, unenlightened gifts are useless to beings such as we. Well, at least it is not more terrible poetry? On the other hand, it does seem that Nicholas, having gone to such lengths to hide his identity – has chosen to reveal his identity, almost immediately after setting up Ragnar as the apparent mastermind. And I thought these characters could become no more foolish…
The wizards immediately conclude that this was not written by Scrounge, and probably not by Ragnar. Tristan admits that when he had his seizure, he had a vision where he did see this person – a young man with dark hair, barely more than a boy, who he was inexplicably drawn to. Dear Tristan… please. That is your son. He now claims that he can literally feel Nicholas in his blood, as if their hearts are beating in tandem, and by my Ancestors, you are making it worse! Wigg and Faegan think that he should go, while Shailiha, proving once again that she is the only character with a modicum of sense, thinks they have gone mad. Tristan thinks he is already fatally poisoned, and if their enemies wanted to kill him, they could do so at any time – at least this way, he might learn something from the encounter. At the very least, Ox should go with him, but Tristan insists on going alone. She wants to know why he is so eager, and he only says they take after each other. …if I were Shailiha, I would feel insulted. He will leave before the hour is over… and as the chapter ends, Shailiha is somehow certain she will never see him again.
MG: Okay, before moving on to our final (short) chapter for the day, we need to talk. It’s time to finally explain The Big Retcon, now that we have all the necessary pieces to understand it with the introduction of the Heretics. So, the Heretics are obviously the beings who first appeared at the end of Fifth Sorceress and are the ultimate power behind Nicholas. They’re also our overarching Big Bads for the whole series. Unfortunately, they’re also just about the dullest ancient force of evil I’ve ever read about. They’re big, they’re bad, they speak in cryptic nonsense, they live in the afterlife and want to come back to life… and that’s about it. They have no individual character, no real personality, and they’re so far removed from the actual plane the story takes place on they don’t have much menace, either. They’re just… there. And they’re bad, we swear. And no, I have no idea why they called the Coven their servants, when so far as we know Failee was only ever working for herself and never seems to have been in contact with the Heretics.
Well, that’s how the next couple of books will present them, anyway. The second trilogy, especially the last two books, will retcon all this away. It turns out – the Heretics don’t live in the Afterlife! In fact, they’re not even dead, and never were! Neither are the Ones! Instead, they’re mortal human beings who live in two empires on the other side of the Tolenka Mountains where they’re locked in constant war with each other, and while Eutracia and Parthalon may have been devastated by that ancient war, the actually core territories of the two empires are fine (Parthalon and Eutracia, by the way, are basically a laboratory for creating Chosen Ones, which is why the Tolenkas were raised in the first place to wall them off). Oh, and based on the dimensions given for the territory the two empires are fighting over – the planet this story takes place on must be several times larger than the Earth, at least. Yay for what’s probably bad authorial math. So, the Ones are actually called Shashidans, and the Heretics are Rustannicans – the Ones are fantasy!Japanese, and the Heretics are fantasy!Romans. Why and how a Japan expy and a Rome expy arose from two factions of the same people is never explained, especially since the leaders of both sides have been around from the beginning and are all tens of thousands of years old, due to time enchantments. So, yeah, what everyone in Eutracia calls “the Afterlife” is no such thing – it’s just another region on the same planet, inhabited by perfectly normal mortal people (whose leaders on both sides happen to be obscenely powerful wizards, admittedly). The weirdest thing is… this isn’t treated as a retcon. Everyone acts like this is just a perfectly logical extension of what they know about the Heretics, even though it literally isn’t. Also, this makes Nicholas’s plan make no sense. There Heretics don’t need to come back to life – they’re already alive! They don’t need to come to Eutracia, and they don’t want to – from their perspective, it’s a pointless backwater (the Chosen One is a Shashidan project, after all; to the extent they have any interest in Eutracia, it’s just killing Tristan before their enemies can use him). They don’t even need Nicholas – they’ve got their own evil version of Tristan they’re grooming as their own dark messiah back in Rustannica right now, and I’ve got no idea how they brought Nicholas back to life or gave him all the knowledge and power he possesses (and he’s certainly not been to the Afterlife while he was dead since, uh, it’s not actually an afterlife…). So, all this is completely pointless. To add insult to injury – the Chosen One prophecy has nothing to do with Eutracia. The Shashidan wizards made it up to try and create someone who could end their war with Rustannica, reunify both nations, and then become emperor of both; Eutracia isn’t part of that, and neither is combining the Vigors and Vagaries (and everyone is… weirdly okay with this when they find out). I wasn’t kidding about Eutracia as a country literally just being a Chosen One-creation-laboratory. So, as far as what turns out to be the actual point of the series (unless Newcomb, if he was given a chance to write the third trilogy, would retcon the whole thing away again, which is entirely possible…) has exactly nothing to do with anything we’ve seen so far. Isn’t this just such a great and well-thought-out series, everyone? Anyway, we’ve got one more, short chapter to do while we’re here, so let’s get to it!
Blood Matters: 137
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 88
Chapter Thirty-Five
Len: Well, we open with Ragnar, again, as he walks into Fledgling House. He takes a moment to look around, thinking about how idyllic the place is (or, I guess, was) and also notes that it’s all pink, how appropriate for little girls. *rolling her eyes* Yeah, ‘cause we all know girls are just… inherently predisposed to like pink. Dammit, Newcomb. Anyway, the place is guarded by hatchlings now as he makes his way through the building, giving pointlessly detailed descriptions of everything he passes. He makes his way through the dormitories, wondering why Nicholas wanted him here, and at last finds Nicholas himself, who’s meditating in midair surrounded by coffinlike boxes. When Ragnar gets closer, he sees that inside each box is a child and, dammit Newcomb, am I going to have to punch someone today? Each of the children is hooked up by a transparent tube to a sphere in the center of the room. Ragnar can see that the spheres are drawing blood from the children *she hisses angrily* but he can’t tell why, just that he’s never seen so much endowed blood in one place. Nicholas explains he’s taking as much as he can without hurting the children, a little each day. So, there’s that, at least. So much beautiful, endowed blood! At this rate, it’ll take weeks before he has enough for his purposes. But still, the potential collected in this bowl is infinitesimal compared to the sanguine fluid of myself and the Chosen One, my father of this world. Apparently, he needs it for part of the ritual to prepare the Gates, and the blood of children with little training is best. Nicholas assures Ragnar that the children are in no pain, and afterwards remember nothing of the experience. Damn… he’s evil, but he’s more humane than I’d think our alleged “good guys” would be in this situation… Meanwhile, the consuls are still mining, the next generation of scarabs are hatching, and Nicholas has more work to do. He releases one of the children, who indeed sits up and laughs happily, then has Ragnar come and walk with him. Nicholas tells him he’s going to the Caves to meet someone, then flies off under his own power, to Ragnar’s continued amazement. Ragnar calls for some hatchlings to tend to the children, then realizes he needs his brain fluid, since it’s apparently been a while. *she makes a face* He then starts fantasizing about his sex slave from last time, and how she’s no Celeste but for now she’ll “do,” and on that revolting note, the chapter ends. Yay.
MG: Well, the most important thing about these chapters was that we learned a whole lot of lore about who our villains are, what they want, and what they’re trying to do, almost all of which will be either erased or made entirely irrelevant later on, so… yay for that? And our bad guys are still very evil, news at eleven. Anyway, next time, in a stunning display of incompetence from both characters (which, considering their track records, is saying something), Tristan meets Nicholas. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Blood Matters: 142
Contrivances and Coincidences: 38
Dastardly Deeds: 87
Exposition Intrusion: 179
Gender Wars: 81
Gratuitous Grimdark: 57
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 89
I’ve also recently resumed my reread and commentary on the (in)famous epic Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic Embers which can be found here if you’re interested!