Chapter Text
To Your Most Glorious Imperial Majesty, Highest Upon the Earth, Lord of the Skies and Master of the Seas, Ethelberd IX Sechtimus, EMYR,
Your humble servant presents a curious folio of tales and lore, all relating to a certain “lost” so-called “Divine” Dragon, recovered via reconnaissance into the ruins near the minor Noradian hamburg of Kardia. While Your humble servant knows Your Imperial Majesty has no interest in ordinary spurious myths and pablum, Your humble servant ventures to note that the folio differs in its views both from the ignorant dragon-worshippers of Norad and Your Imperial Majesty’s learned and scholarly citizens of Sechs. It seems likely this folio is older than both nations.
Knowing of Your Imperial Majesty’s deep scholarship and investigation into the true power of the “Divine” Dragons, Your humble servant ventures to present these to Your Imperial Majesty alongside the body of our reports. Of course, Your humble servant has no doubt that Your Imperial Majesty will find them trivial, for Your glorious conquest of all upon the wings of the mighty Terrable is already at hand. Your humble servant hopes only that Your Imperial Majesty may find some small diversion in these tales before Your glorious victory over Norad is complete.
Long Be the Dominion of the Sechs,
——-
(The letter is yellow and faded with age, and after it was retrieved from the ruins of the Sechs imperial capital, some careless Noradian records-keeper had spilled ink across its bottom half. The writer’s signature is no longer visible.)
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The First Taboo
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Amarukas, the Divine Love, heard the last words of his first love in a peaceful garden.
His high priest had simply grown too frail with the passing of age. There was nothing untoward or unexpected about the man’s decline, for that was the lot of mortals, even ones beloved by a dragon god. So now the priest’s bony fingers hung weakly upon Amarukas’s claw, where once he had clasped it heartily. His once-resonant voice was now little more than a whisper, and his skin seemed as white as his hair. Yet the emerald of his eyes and the clarity of his gaze had not faded along with all else about him, and those eyes now fixed upon the draconic visage of his god one last time.
“My lord, please... excuse my hasty departure. Watch over our people... and lead them to...”
“... I shall. I swear it.”
Thus ironically, a god swore devotion to the memory of his first devotee. Or perhaps it was not so ironic, for Amarukas, the Divine Dragon of Love, could not be expected to do otherwise. So the humans of the first priest’s clan became known as the First Men, and grew in blessings and in power, in strength and in number, until their cities came to tower above those of all of the other races in the young world.
“Are you not being too biased for a god?” said Lumenivia, his eldest sister, the Divine Light.
“Stop being foolishly attached. That mortal’s gone already.” snapped Umbradea, his somewhat less elder sister, the Divine Darkness.
But Amarukas, being the third brother and still rather highly ranked among the gods, did not pay them much heed. For the people he loved needed his care more than the affairs of the dragon gods.
So the empire of the First Men continued to grow in power and might, and in magic, and in height. The final tower they built rose so high above the young world that some said it rivalled the dragon gods themselves. Lumenivia simply rolled her eyes at that and left on her duties, while Umbradea muttered darkly but did the same, and the youngest four - well, Amarukas didn’t really pay much attention to them back then. The flourishing of his people was what brought him great joy, for as his high priest had taught him, what was the duty of a parent except to wish that his children exceeded him?
And so it was that, under the loving gaze of their god, the First Men pierced the cosmos in their tower and their hubris - and awoke the Fathomless Dread. And when the pieces of time and space and gold and dark scales had finally settled, Lumenivia and Umbradea and many brave Earthmates were gone, and Amarukas stood solitary before the shattered tower.
“Brother,” said his youngest sister Ventuswill, the Divine Wind, timidly from far behind him, where the other three had protected her, “what ought we to do now?”
“You must rule now.” declared his eldest remaining sibling Terrable, the Divine Earth, “ Give us the word, and we shall recreate the world just as you wish.”
“No,” said Amarukas, and could not look at them as he sank the remnants of the tower of his people deep into the earth. None could agree afterwards if he had done so - forever entombed the monstrous and corrupted remnants of the First Men into a labyrinth under the world - for their sake, for the world’s sake, or as the last apology he could offer to his two eldest sisters.
“Recreate the world as you wish. You have wisdom, and courage, and strength, and life among you. You shall be the guardians of this world, and I... am unfit to rule over anyone.”
And so Amarukas, the Divine Dragon of Love, formed his first taboo and exiled himself into the world, leaving its rule to the remaining four Divine Dragons. For a god must act for the good of the whole world, and never for his own joy.
******
Lucas
******
“A moment, please...”
“Yes?”
Hearing the footsteps upon the path behind me, I turn to ask the next passing ranger the same question I had asked several others before— and stop abruptly.
Extraordinary.
“Um, how can I help you...?”
Truly extraordinary. I can find no other words to describe what I see before me, so I beg your pardon for simply referring to you as “you”.
I had not known humans could be so different. Passing other humans on the road, I had noted ones with hair of black and gold, and skin dark and light. But I had never encountered one with a head so vast and round - and orange - as yours. A tuft of green protrudes from the very top, and your features appear to be a set of black holes carved into the expanse of your face. Utterly fascinating. How had your voice been produced without moving lips?
But I am being impolite by gawking, and catch myself. “—Yes. If I may ask, do you know who I am? I am afraid I do not.”
Your great orange face does not change expression, but it does tilt to the side slightly. Are you puzzled, or is this a different gesture among your people? I must make a note of this.
“Sorry. I don’t think I do, but what d— wah!! ”
I blink. That had been a yelp of surprise at the end of your sentence. Or was that simply your way of speech?
“Then you do not know? My apologies. I should leave you to—”
“Wait, don’t turn around yet! I- I might remember, so give me a second to— Saru, go back— ”
Strange. You appear desperate, and your hands are gesticulating wildly, but I do not see what could have... oh! Of course. You must be speaking to someone behind me.
I turn to give an apology for ignoring their presence, and just as you yelp “ stop—”, come face-to-face with great yellow eyes set into a vast blue-furred snout.
“—ah, were you waiting to speak to this ranger? My apologies.”
I step to the side so that you and the great blue-furred fox may converse. However, silence ensues, and oddly neither of you move. The fox only stares at me with unblinking yellow eyes, and despite your frozen features, your posture tells me that you are utterly bewildered.
“... um. You— wait. You’re not scared of...?”
I am confused. “Ought I to be?”
“I— no! I mean, it’s just...” you appear to be struggling with your words. “Saru’s... she’s huge. And a fox. And a nine-tailed fox . I’ve been trying to get people used to her for a week and only today did Captain Livia actually let me bring her into the Silo yard, since the only people around here are the blacksmiths an— Saru! Hey!”
The great snout of the fox noses at my hair, producing a sensation that I must describe as “ticklish”. Then, with a warm sniff , the fox turns and pads away.
“......”
As you do not speak, I decide I must take the chance to record this singular turn of events, but I have just set pen to paper when you blurt out, “she likes you?”
“She does? Interesting.” I note that down carefully. “Was that the method of affection foxes use, then?”
“W- what? Well, I mean... she didn’t even growl and she even turned her back on you, so that means she actually trus— ah, hold on! I can’t let her wander—”
With that last interrupted recollection, you run after the great fox, and I conclude I ought to be on my way as well. But I find myself intrigued even as I begin walking towards the town, for so many varied things had occurred within so short a time. I could not help hoping there might be more. Perhaps someone here may know who I am after all, or why I recall nothing whatsoever except perhaps my name. And I wonder if I shall discover the secret of your great orange head?
Though I receive no direct answers, I find in short order that I was absolutely correct about how fascinating this village would be.
Firstly, I am waylaid by the village children within a great tree-covered square. The one I shall later know as Julian, believing me to be a magician, presses me into attempting a few magic tricks, and I find that I am more than adequate at teleporting small objects. Conclusion: I may indeed be a magician.
Secondly, an audience gathers as I continue to perform various tricks, and I discover that seeing their excitement gives me joy, a deeply pleasant emotion. I furthermore find that I do not wish to disappoint them. Conclusion: I am very likely a performer and a magician.
But thirdly, you - of the great orange head - return just as I am about to begin a trick with a valuable crystal, and the sight of you startles me into teleporting the crystal into your pocket. The audience takes it as an ingenious prank, but I am left pensive. If I were truly a magician, I should not have been so easily distracted. But what if the distraction were simply from you - and perhaps you were also a magician of your kind?
Conclusion: I am intrigued by you. And perhaps you are by me as well. For after the children are herded off by a blue-eared woman resembling the fox, you and I remain in the square.
“Um,” you say, “I just wanted to say thanks. For not running away from Saru earlier... I think she was happy about that.”
“I am glad to hear of it. But should I have run?”
“Well, no, I mean... most people usually do though. So I’m glad you were...” you abruptly stop, apparently recalling a social nicety, “- hold on, I forgot to introduce myself!”
We exchange names, and you seem slightly more at ease. I find that though I do not recognize your name either, I do in fact know that my name is “Lucas”. It is not much information, but it is a very ordinary human name, so I am likely a human after all.
You seem bewildered again when I muse on this. I find some satisfaction in realizing I can tell your emotions after all. “You’re not sure if... you’re human?”
“Yes. I believe I am, but I have forgotten all else, and there is a great deal I do not know.” I look about the square, wondering if ‘everything’ would suffice as an example, but finally settle on one object. “For instance, the sweet scent emitting from that odd structure. It is appealing, and my stomach makes sounds when I am near it, but I am not entirely sure what may be causing it.”
“That’s a bakery... you mean you’re hungry. You don’t... even know that you’re hungry?”
“Oh, hunger... I see. Perhaps that’s why I have been weaker the last few days...”
“The last few...? Wait. Have you not eaten for— ”
You abruptly drop your pack upon the floor and begin digging through it. As I watch with fascination, you come up with - a couple of weeds, a platter of what appears to be monster blood, a large root vegetable, a greatsword, farming implements, an egg you almost hand me before saying “wait, that’s raw-”, a stick, a brick— no, two bricks—
—but at last you thrust a bowl of soup and noodles into my hands.
“I didn’t pack more food before I went on patrol today, so I just grabbed my last udon experiment and— please just eat this before you fall over! How did you not realize—”
I oblige. I find almost immediately that I am indeed “hungry”, as before I realize it the bowl is empty, and you are looking at me with perhaps some form of awe.
“That was fast. Did you... like it?”
“It was absolutely magnificent,” I state with utter honesty.
“Oh! It really was that good?”
“Quite so! The flavor of the broth was fascinating, and the sensations it produces in me are entirely new. What were the blue petals within? They gave a rather intense burst of bitterness.“
“Blue petals...? Hold on, what do you... oh. Oh no— ”
A mad dash and a hastily downed purple vial later, the strange tingle of “poison” is gone. I now sit upon a bed within the building where we’d met for the first time, and you are crouched on the floor beside me, with your great orange face in your hands.
“I’m so sorry. I swear I don’t... I don’t put poison in all my food... I was figuring out how to make higher quality dishes, and had a lot of flowers, and forgot charm blues were poisonous, and I’m so sorry—”
“But I did not mind it,” I say, for I truly hadn’t. “Really, it was a very new and fascinating experience to be poisoned.”
Silence. You finally raise your head towards me. “You’re... actually serious?”
“Certainly.” I smile at you reassuringly, and then recall I do not know how a reassuring smile ought to look. “I have learned so many new things today. I am actually very grateful for your assistance - and for the magnificent food you offered me. It was delicious.”
You say nothing for a moment, though it seems that you are staring at me. Then finally you let out a breath, and then a small chuckle.
“Sorry, it’s just... I’ve never met anyone like you since I got here. Anyone who can think poisonous udon is... delicious, I mean... you really are an interesting person, Lucas.”
“I am honored that you think so,” I say, warmly. “I find you very interesting as well.”
You make an odd sound at that, but after a little longer you shake your head again and climb back to your feet, seeming to have made a resolution.
“W... well. Still, I need to report to Captain Livia. I’m a SEED ranger... I can’t just poison a traveller and get away with it. So - can you come with me? She should be able to help you too.”
In the audience-room below, you report my situation and confess to your wrongs against me with remarkable resolve, despite your voice sounding as if you expected utter doom. But after your confession has completed, Captain Livia - both shorter and sharper than I had imagined - simply casts a yellow eye across the both of us, and then scowls and mutters something under her breath.
It had sounded like, “ another amnesiac?”
“Captain?” You ask, uncomprehending.
“Right. For the poisoning, I sentence you to helping him figure out what happened to his memory,” Captain Livia says flatly, “and don’t tell Scarlett why you have to.”
The one named Scarlett arrives soon afterwards. The three of you engage in a hasty round of discussion about runes and magic circles and subjects which I do not follow, but Captain Livia indeed makes no mention of the poisoning. Soon you are being sent off to the crystal caverns that I recalled waking up within, and I am being packed off with Scarlett “for a quick check-in, and then to get some food”.
“Shall I assist you in some way?” I ask you before you depart, but you shake your head.
“No, please don’t worry about me. Just stay put in town for now, and get more food and rest, okay?”
The “check-in” proceeds. Scarlett soon delivers me to the building known as a “restaurant” before being called away. But though the scent emitting from within is tantalizing, the fascinating taste of your noodles comes back to me, and I discover that other scents do not compare. Instead, as I stand before the doors considering what to do, I suddenly find myself recalling how you had determinedly strode away towards your mission. It had been a striking contrast with your earlier shame-filled gloom, but also with your mad dash dragging me to fetch antidote, and again with your utter bewilderment at seeing me with the fox. Somehow, all of this had been clear - without the expression of your great orange face changing in the slightest.
That is the moment I realize that you are the most intriguing human I have met to date (if you are human at all), and that though you have instructed me not to worry, the emotion I am experiencing now is not so much worry as utter fascination. And so there should be no issue with taking myself to find you.
“What th— Lucas?! ”
“I thought you might need a guide through the caverns,” I say brightly, and marvel as a large squirrel’s thrown rock bounces harmlessly off your head - and you turn and send it flying with a single punch.
You subsequently dispatch the rest of the monsters, and after making it clear to me that most human magicians cannot instantly appear anywhere they wish (I make a note of this), you finally stop, stare at me again, sigh with some resignation, and mutter, “but I guess if you’re that powerful, you’ll probably be okay in here... and if I send you off and you get yourself poisoned again both Scarlett and Captain Livia will kill me. So stick close to me, okay?”
“Certainly,” I assent. “The next time I wish to experience poisoning, I shall find you for an antidote first.”
I am not entirely sure what the odd sound you make in response means, but at any rate we proceed, and my decision to follow you quickly proves correct. For through the next few skirmishes with monsters large and small, I discover many things:
- that my magical talents include spheres of protective light and great stone pillars,
- that gemstones so entrance me that I may fail to notice a monster gnawing on me (until you swat it away),
- that your great orange head is impervious to all attack,
- and that, every time I observe your graceful movements and powerful strikes against the hordes of foes before us, I find myself unable to look away.
Fascinating. Utterly fascinating.
“I had thought most humans use blades to fight,” I observe, as we begin the descent into the third level of the caverns. “I had not thought one could be so effective at dispatching monsters with - I believe those are known as ‘plush puppets’?”
“Animal puppets,” you say, then hastily add, “and I mean, I just thought I’d try them out... anyway, most people don’t use these to fight, so don’t think you need to write that—”
“Ah, I suppose they do appear to be rather soft. Quite unlike your powerful head. Still, it does appear noteworthy for further investigation...”
There is silence for a few long moments, as I am occupied with recording your words without inadvertently slipping on the steps. But then at last your voice comes again, sounding rather strange. “Um, Lucas. Were you just... talking about my head?”
“Yes. In fact, I confess to having been impressed by it since we met.” I realize I had in fact forgotten to record its imperviousness, and make a few more notes. “It is a shame we are occupied in a mission, for I would dearly love to ask you how you came to have such a strikingly vast and orange head. Perhaps after we return...”
“... uh. I... I mean. This... isn’t actually—”
“Oh- a moment! I recognize this place!”
We enter the great cavern which I awoke within some number of days ago, and our conversation is set aside. I immediately find myself engrossed with the fascinating frozen crystal formations within, which I had perhaps been too disoriented to notice before, while you follow behind me, muttering again under your breath.
“... no magic circle? But if that wasn’t why he lost his memory, then how could he forget so much about every single thing? And why did I... Lucas, hang on!”
Your voice stops me just as I am about to step into the pool at the center of the room, and I look back with some surprise. You are still a little behind me with puppets at the ready, and you seem agitated, though I know not why.
“Is there some problem? This pool is fascinatingly clear. I thought I might see if it held something at its bottom.”
“I don’t even know what to say to th—... first of all, humans don’t breathe underwater. Secondly, with a room this big, we need to watch out... for...”
There is suddenly a powerful splash from behind me.
“Lucas!! MOVE!! ”
A great number of things occur at once. There is a sound like that of ropes whipping towards me. The water about my feet surges. Your great orange head is suddenly launching towards me— you have launched yourself towards me—
—and then you crash into me hard enough to knock the breath from my chest, and an instant later, the great tentacle aiming for me catches your head instead of mine, and rips it from your shoulders.
“NO—”
Then my cry of shock fades away, for the sight revealed leaves me at a complete loss for words.
Glittering between a thousand water droplets, fine golden strands encircle a determined brow, a finely formed nose, an elegant chin— and a pair of bright eyes that may be either azure or verdant, I know not which. Nor do I know whether I am more stunned by my crash into the water, or by the realization that these bright eyes are yours. I know not if words even exist to describe the sight, as even the crystal pool had not been so clear as they are—
I know only that I am suddenly lost within your eyes, and shall be every time I look into them for eternity. For I also abruptly recall that I am a god.
“Get back! ” You roar at me before I can collect my wits enough to inform you of this, and then spring away towards the many-armed monster. And then a great battle ensues as I can only watch from afar, for my mind is suddenly in utter turmoil.
I am a god? But what sort of god? What domain does my divinity rule over? What ought I to do? Why do I recall abruptly many taboos - but no hint of my powers? How ought I to speak to mortals henceforth? And -
You yell something. I look up suddenly. One of the monster’s tentacles has managed to seize your leg. You are being swung up into the air, and when you inevitably come back down—
—I abruptly realize that no other answer matters to me than that you live.
“One, two— three !!”
I snap my fingers. The tentacle sends crystal fragments into the air as it crashes into the ground. And you—
—you give a battle cry, and the great unbreakable orange head that is once again safely over yours echoes the sound throughout the cavern. Then you spring back to your feet, grab the tentacle of the surprised kraken, and finally haul it bodily from the pool, to slam it flat into the ground as it could not to you.
“Lucas,” you say much later, as we stand beside the crystal pool watching the last ripples from your magnificent battle finally vanish, “thank you. I don’t think I’d have survived that without you.”
“It was only a small magic trick,” I say magnanimously. “Please think nothing of it. Your feats today were far more impressive.”
“Your magic trick teleported my helmet across the room . Right onto my head. While I was speeding towards the ground via a kraken’s tentacle—”
“Well, naturally it did. But that is still not entirely surprising.” I shake my head, and note with some wonder how water droplets from my hair - still quite soaked from when you tackled me into the pool earlier - scatter every which way like small gemstones. Though I also observe that my hair flying about in inky curls is nowhere near as picturesque as the sight of your golden strands had been.
“Um. It’s... not?”
“Yes. After all, as I’ve recently recalled, I am a god.”
I look over towards you. You gape back at me, the great orange head - helmet - now safely beneath your arm. Your shining hair has been somewhat transformed by the battle and sticks out a little here and there, and now that I can finally observe your true face, I can note how your brows arch and your mouth opens and your clear eyes meeting mine are full of absolute incredulity—
—and then you begin to laugh, surprisedly, warmly, and mesmerizing in your entirety, and I conclude one thing then. My conclusion does not waver even as we return to the village of Rigbarth, report your exploits to Captain Livia - for I insist you keep my divinity a secret - and establish me within the village as a crystal merchant. For the more I see of you within my new mortal life, the more certain I become.
Should I recall every memory of my prior existence, I would still claim the sight of you, laughing with honest delight beside me in the crystal cavern, to be the most wonderful of them all.