Play Testers Wanted Pt. 14

"Fuck!" I screamed and cursed until I sat on the ground weeping. The poor girl fled crying as

Ynariel raced to my side, held me tenderly and slowly rocked me as I let out my frustration. She sang a soothing tune and the guilt drove out the mix of dark emotions. Real life was intruding as the back log of memories and recent revelations intruded.

"Maybe if you punched something?" Ynariel suggested and the ground rumbled. A tombstone shaped slab of dark stone rose from the earth. It was smooth on one side and perfect for slamming my fist into. "See, one big block of stone." She said with a smile.

We stood and I attempted to treble my strength with the gloves Thor had given me but it was only now that I realized that, like Left, I had mastered them and all three of my physical stats were tripled now permanently. Holy shit!

"Ghost smash!" I chuckled. I drew on Shatterpoint and found the slab's weak spot. I put everything into the punch and the rock turned quite literally to dust. A second slab rose but this one was pale marble with gold veins running through it. The Shatterpoint was much smaller and damn near dead center. I made a few test punches before striking the stone as hard as I could. The largest piece left was the size of a ping pong ball.

"That was Orhan Marble!" The Keeper exclaimed. "It is the loveliest, hardest building material in the known galaxy! I have never seen anything like it."

"I feel better." I admitted. I plucked a piece of the marble from the ground and had Traci scan it.

"It is a 12 on the Mohs scale, it is much harder than terrestrial diamond." She stated.

"Ah, a challenge then," the Keeper offered. "You seem smitten with the rare alloys. I will offer you ten ingots, nay fifty ingots of Mambien steel. It is one of the strongest and most flexible naturally occurring alloys that I know of."

"I take it, it also comes from Orhan?" I pondered.

"No, it comes from Raven Home, a forgotten Kree colony." He clarified. "Behold the heart of a dead star. Can you discover its weak point I wonder?" The ground shook and a polished block of translucent stone rose. Even in its dull uncut state the raw stellar diamond had a simplistic beauty to it. "To explain, stop me if I bore you," the Keeper explained. "Some stars when they are at the end of their lives produce carbon instead hydrogen or helium. This is the literal death knell of the star. After it collapses, they leave behind a core of solid compressed carbon also known as diamond by the Terrans. Due to the terrific gravitic forces involved this diamond is far denser than your terrestrial version. Good luck Champion."

I took my first look at the slab and found nothing.

"Well fuck." I whispered.

I walked around it and ran my hand across the surface. Shatterpoint seemed useless now. I squatted close and squinted to see if I was missing a microfracture in the substance. I whistled and Shatterpoint created a single brief sparkle of light. Ooh... gotcha! I sang and pitched my voice to wash over the slab. It took time but that sparkle became a glimmer, the glimmer a scintillating point.

"Yahtzee!" I exclaimed in triumph.

"What is this Yahtzee?" The Keeper queried Ynariel.

"I think it means you had better collect those ingots." She giggled. The Keeper aura did not worsen instead it brightened. The hood leaned forward expectantly as I cleared my thoughts and held the note that brought out the weak point.

"KI-AHH!" I shouted and before my fist could fly the slab shattered. My voice had struck out with the sixth song, the Song of Destruction, with devastating effect.

"A Master of the Voice!" The Keeper rejoiced. "I have witnessed the supreme use of the Voice!" He did an odd little dance and I did not correct him. The Death Song was the pinnacle of the art but secrecy was paramount to me. "Behold! A moment truly worthy of preservation. I... I am profoundly grateful of this opportunity." He gestured and there was the briefest of flashes of what appeared to be sunlight on glass or crystal. "I cannot put into words the depth of my gratitude! So long have I peered into the stream of time to collect those most precious of moments and here I was in the flesh to experience such an event."

Ynariel nodded her appreciation and I collected 100 ingots of the rare alloy. He was so impressed he doubled my reward gleefully. I performed a brief deep dive into what I could discover about Mambien Steel. The Shi'Ar records of Raven Home are limited but they did mention the rare metal derived not from veins of raw ore but instead from crystal deposits. The long dead Coribites created a single forge that could process and produce Mambien. The files did not go into detail, but they did describe the weapons fashioned from the gleaming timeless metal. The edges of the weapons were without peer and no matter the situation they never dulled or fell to the withering effects of age or rust or elements. Once a weapon was forged it was perpetual.

"You say that Raven Home is a forgotten Kree colony. Why?" I asked.

"It is shrouded by a dark energy nebula. Your ancestors stole it from the Kree and made it a colony." The Keeper explained. "They may yet live upon its surface. But let us not dwell upon dark thoughts... you must see my gallery, you simply must!" He gestured and an ornate archway appeared. Neither of us missed the distinctive design being extremely close to that of the style used by Ynariel's people. Was he telling her that he knew who she was? As we strode towards the gate the spindle droid raced to intercept us.

"Come on, we won't leave you behind." I chuckled.

The portal took us to a fair distance from where the Dancer had landed. An unforeseen sense had awoken since arriving. I could tell when I had been teleported and how far and what direction I had landed. I did not know if it was a growing connection to the Space Stone or my affinity with the Web. I sent a brief telepathic message to Isolenti to keep an eye on things. This area was dominated by a ten-story tall statue of an Elder Thing. Ynariel was disgusted by it, the Keeper gave off prideful vibes, and I tried to see who had made it and when.

"It is genuine," I blurted out rudely. "I mean Shoggoths created it."

"You continue to surprise." The Keeper chuckled. "It is indeed taken from their capitol city. Follow me."

He leisurely strolled down the grassy knoll towards the cyclopean statue. As we walked, I noticed the air around the base glittering. What the hell was that? He mentioned a gallery, was this it? Had he created an outdoor display of some sort? The closer we drew to the statue the more of them that we saw. In shape they were tumbling trapezoids. They appeared to be made of glass or crystal. They lazily drifted in orbit around the statue.

"While Taneleer collects rare forms of fauna. The Gardener maintains entire worlds of floral lifeforms to preserve them. I keep moments of time. I reap only the finest of instances. A race's greatest achievements or their direst failures." He said the hood facing Ynariel. "Yes, she elf I have encapsulated the Fall in all its dark glory." I felt Ynariel ready to spring. "Since you mentioned the Elder Things earlier, I thought it a fitting first stop."

"Do you take satisfaction from instigating such consternations?" I asked using Kaia-Jutsu to let him feel my barely contained rage directed at him. While the stones had taken the edge off my anger it had hardly bled it dry.

"I do not apologize for the truth." The Keeper replied coolly. "But come, view the history of the Elder Things. I have many statues and many races both extinct we may visit."

Ynariel took my arm and we let the Keeper choose which moments he wished us to witness. The first instance was the arrival of the Elder Things to the Earth. They drifted across the vastness of space for a hundred million years in a state of hibernation. We watched them flutter down from the heavens and glide and land in their hundreds of thousands.

"I did that." I boasted and she laughed.

"I know. I've seen the footage from your mask." She stated trying not to sound annoyed.

"Here is the height of their society." The Keeper announced and gestured at another of the trapezoids. An army of Shoggoths and Elder Things fought off the full might of Cthulhu and his minions. The flash of the lightning guns devastated the lumbering Star Spawn, Deep Ones, and drove the Great Old One back into the sea. "Just a taste of a society that endured for millions of years."

"I would see the War in Heaven." Ynariel demanded. "I would see the Gods before they were destroyed."

"I will grant your desire Aeldari. You, Morasir, what would you see?" The Keeper asked clearly loving his control of the moment.

"I want to see the race that crafted Spindle here in their natural state," I replied. The Keeper gestured and a frosty blue trapezoid tumbled over and hovered just out of reach.

"Be warned Champion, even you may not endure the psychic cost of this memory." He cautioned and I weighed wisdom over curiosity. It was Ynariel's hand on my arm that dissuaded me from continuing. I changed my mind. I had endured enough mind fuckery for a lifetime. "So, what will it be?" The Keeper asked as the frosty window floated passed away to join the others.

I thought about asking to see the creation of the Pride of Korriban when I remembered that was on the Star Wars side of things. "It looks like you will just have to remain a mystery Spindle. How about a peek at the founding of Svartalfheim?"

"A wise choice." The Keeper said with a bow. "Behold!" He said and gestured as a new temporal pane hovered into view.

The nine realms burst into existence, but the vision focused on the home of the dark elves. The world took form and the whole of it a glorious garden. The Svartalfar settled upon it in their millions. They swarmed from the dark nebulae or the worlds orbiting black suns. The dark elves had a home and the beauty of it brought tears to my eyes.

"It is so dark." Ynariel whispered.

"You cannot perceive it as he does." The Keeper explained. "Even I cannot see it with the eyes of the Svartalfar. Let it be."

"There should be songs to describe it." I muttered emotionally overwhelmed. I recalled my brief vision of ancient Svartalfheim but this... this was the realm at the pinnacle of its beauty and raw mineral wealth. There must have been billions of tons of Vibranium woven into the very ecosystem of the planet. Just before this vision ended, I received the briefest of glimpses of the Vibranium network that permeated Svartalfheim. I wiped away the last of the tears and turned away as the trapezoid tumbled away. It was Ynariel's turn now.

"Come Aeldari, see the pinnacle of your people's power!" The Keeper asserted and gestured.

He created another portal. The configuration was identical to the first. The terrain beyond though was vastly different from the rolling hills of grass. We entered an alien forest with a light ground fog obscuring the floor while crepuscular rays pierced the canopy and cast the woods in light and shadow. The trees while unknown to me were quite familiar to Ynariel. She appeared quite emotional from her typical steely exterior. The upper limbs of the trees were covered in shimmering webs. Unlike the light absorbing strands of Tolkien's Mirkwood these filaments seem to channel the sunlight and pass it onto the plants and younger trees like a naturally occurring fiber optic network. Scuttling amid the webs were glittering hard shelled spiders that suddenly vanished only to reappear elsewhere in the web.

"Warp Spiders," Ynariel whispered in reverence. "They inspired the shrine you first visited on Jarull. The warriors of that aspect carry personal teleporters and a formidable weapon, the death spinner, which is like the forearm weapon you've seen me employ only bigger." She paused to take in the beauty. "Wraithbone trees, once a source of building materials for my people."

I placed Left's palm against one of the Wraithbone trees and closed my eyes. Space rippled in a steady staccato and I found myself humming the tune created by the spiders. I was drawn into the song and was singing, the words manifesting as easily as new fallen rain. The lyrics spoke of space, time, the soul, the mind, power, and the malleability of reality. Ynariel's gasp of surprise brought me round. I opened my eyes and the fist sized creatures were crawling over me. If I suffered from arachnophobia I would have screamed. I offered a telepathic thread to them and first one then more of them took it and wove it with their own. Soon, a psychic web had been spun with me in the center. I greeted them with kindness, and they reciprocated gleefully. I was one of them and did not attempt to master them. They shared a few secrets about great structures that slid through the depths of interstellar space that reminded me of the city I had restored to the heart of the web.

"Heart of the city," they whispered. "Secret."

"Can you teach me to spin?" I asked and they tittered.

"Watch brother, see how the leaves of the tree come apart. Belly acid breaks it down but does not destroy. Now you can spin." They whispered in my head.

They teleported back to the top of the limbs and I turned to face Ynariel. She raced into my arms and hugged me. No words were necessary to convey her joy at what she had witnessed. We continued through the forest and I plucked a leaf from a tree, popped it into my mouth, and chewed on it. The leaf had a citrus taste that was not lemon, lime, or orange. It was pleasant but unknown to me. Once my saliva had done its work, I examined what was left of the leaf. The clump of material glistened and shown somewhere between crystal and burnished metal.

"Interesting." I commented. I saved the sample for a more thorough examination later perhaps I could use it for my webbing compound.

The forest thinned revealing a clearing, in that clearing a statue of the Phoenix surrounded by a host of glittering trapezoids. They floated as they tumbled end over end in slow motion. I wanted to examine the statue and its base. The stone defied me as did the cryptic characters etched under the surface. The face of the stone was polished smooth and submerged just below the exterior those damnable runes. I was familiar with so many alphabets and languages and the monolith thumbed its nose at all that I had leaned.

"Gorgeously enigmatic." I chuckled. "The only thing it lacks is the eternal flame like that at the Shrine of Iyanden." I muttered. "It might be of Aeldari make but it is not sanctified to Her."

I felt the hollowness and so did Ynariel. The Keeper summoned a crystalline frame and displayed the greatest victory of Ynariel's people against a race that reminded me of the Terminators armed with energy weapons that spat green death. The Aeldari and their gods entered the battle and crushed their enemy. I felt her joy seeing the long dead deities restored for this precious moment in time. She pointed out each and named them. She laughed when her finger rested upon the Exalted Harlequin, the Dancing God.

It was clear by her armor, fighting style, and joyous expression when she saw him that Ynariel was a harlequin, a follower of the Dancing God. Her speed, dexterity, and training made her a shining example of her path. She watched how her god moved in battle. She memorized every step, every subtle nuance of balance or the path of blade or projectile, and her love showed brilliantly in her eyes and smile.

"I thank you Keeper!" Ynariel said with a deep bow. "I have learned more in so short a time than I could ever hope to on my own."

"You are welcome daughter, but soon you must look upon their darkest hour." The Keeper replied.

"If there be a noon day sun, so must the sun set and night fall upon the land." She whispered.

A second window spun into view. Blood ran in the streets and terror stalked the shadows of the Aeldari worlds. The once proud race had fallen under the sway of the ruinous powers and indulged every wicked act until nothing was left beneath them to stoop to. Hope took the form of the Harlequins and the Exodites. The dancers of death fled into the web while the faithful built great floating arks in the shape of craftworlds. They barely survived the fall as the birth of She That Thirsts tore the very fabric of reality and her birth cry sounded the fate of the Aeldari race. She consumed the gods, all but the god of war and the Exalted Harlequin. To survive Khaine shattered himself into shards and let the will of his people's desire to endure support him. The dancing god fled as his followers had before him into the web. Ynariel's tears struck the earth near the base of the statue. The first tear struck like a thunderbolt. The psychic backlash grew stronger with each subsequent tear that hit the ground. When the third salty drop fell the braziers on the corners of the statue erupted into life. The nearest of the three streamed blood red flame, to the right emerald green, and to the left scintillating white.

"She... is here!" I howled as my knees buckled under Her presence. Ynariel's pain had called the goddess here. Her anguish was so profound it pulled her across time/space to this lost world. Ynariel held me as she too bent knee to the manifestation of the Phoenix. Even the Keeper showed reverence to the primal force made material.

"Eldanesh?" A voice whispered and drifted across the valley. "El-da-nesh?"

"Impossible!" Ynariel and the Keeper both exclaimed.

"Fair Eldanesh, why do you hide from me?" The voice grew clearer but no louder. It was a female voice. The scarlet stone I had been given/chosen blazed to life on my mask and the soul within spoke.

"I am here." He called out his voice hollow but quickly gathering strength. "The Sleeper has awoken my Lady."

I felt the power reach out and pluck me off the ground. A brilliant ruby incandescence surrounded me, and I surrendered to the stone added to my mask. The statue blazed with scarlet and gold flames as the voice cried out.

"Find them and return them!" The voice demanded as images of the craftworlds shone in my thoughts.

"I will." Eldanesh vowed speaking through me now.

"No doubts between us... see my children... SEE!" She shrieked as the visions threatened to shred my mind into subatomic particles. My body fell to the soft earth and I instinctively huddled into a fetal position. There were other cities to save, floating fortresses that drifted between the stars just as the warp spiders had shown me earlier. I opened my eyes and the ground around me smoldered. I was surprised at the lack of pain. Ynariel helped me roll into a sitting position. I blinked away the spots in my vision. The burning ground took the shape of a mystic circle consisting of dark elf runes. I could read them of course.

"I do not understand." I stated. "No longer in name only. What does that even mean?"

"Your eyes!" She said kissing my forehead. "Behold!" She drew her dagger so I could catch my reflection on the blade. I shook my head, and only then did she remember I was cursed. "They are a deep violet but now they glow with an inner light."

"Pretty." I laughed still feeling tipsy from the blast of raw power from the icon.

"You have questions?" The Phoenix purred.

"Just one. I would like to know how the Paradise System came into being." I replied with a silly smile on my lips too drunk to stand.

"Observe." She whispered. "Handsome Ghost."

One of the panes changed course and took up a position before us. It was dark, pitch black, until a tiny red dot appeared. The vision zoomed in on that dot. It was a pregnant woman surrounded by a protective bubble. The scene began and I got a better look at her. I exclaimed in surprise seeing Allisara the wife of Malekith and lover of Bor of Asgard. Allisara's aura crackled with power.