Shadow of the Otherverse (The Last Whisper of the Gods Saga Book 3) (54 page)

The newcomer fought absorption, although she didn’t seek Order. Chaos became divided. It collapsed inward, consuming itself. The struggle, largely invisible to The Lord of Order, was brief and there was little that Once-Sorial could do to impact it. To do so would comprise the integrity of Order; his struggle was against Chaos not a single faction of it.

I am Altemiak. I am the Lord of Chaos
.

I am Alicia. I am The Lord of Chaos
.

United in intent if not in voice, entropy continued to seethe and pulse, but not as aggressively as before. The Chaos-driven particles pinged off each other, reversing polarity, as frequently as they impacted molecules of Order.

Once-Sorial brandished Order like a weapon with all the aptitude his human self had used magic. It was his to control but he wouldn’t surround and decapitate the divided Chaos. He had come to the Otherverse with a purpose. His transformation from interloper to Lord of Order didn’t change that. He was here to maintain balance not to advance Order’s dominance. He was here to end the threat to the Otherverse and the universe of matter. He was the master of Order not its servant.

He reached out to the part of Chaos that was Once-Alicia. Incredibly, he could sense her - amorphous, like all of Chaos, but somehow incomplete. He had entered the Otherverse whole but something had happened to her along the way. Some flaw in her passage through the gateway. More than just her body had been melted away - parts of her essence had gone with it, sundered as she had materialized in the Otherverse. Once-Alicia’s aspect of The Lord of Chaos was crippled. She couldn’t dominate Once-Altemiak as fully as he had been able to suppress Once-Malbranche.

Do you know me?
It was Once-Sorial, not The Lord of Order, who asked. He was surprised he could grant primacy to that portion of himself, that he could give rein to the emotions and memories that comprised his relationship with her.

Of course I know you, stableboy. I followed you here, didn’t I?
The silent voice conveyed a sardonic tone.
We seem trapped on opposite sides of a primal struggle. So much of what was cryptic when I read it in the library now makes sense.

When I wrote it, it wasn’t intended to be understood by lesser minds
. Those were Once-Malbranche’s words.

It seems becoming The Lord of Order has improved your literacy although not your manners.
Once-Alicia had no eyes but Once-Sorial remembered how they would sparkle when she made comments like that.

Do you agree that our purpose is to ensure balance?

That’s why we’re here. Chaos and Order can never be allies but The Lord of Chaos and The Lord of Order can be. Duty - one of your favorite words, stableboy - look where it’s gotten us.

Then you should have stayed away.
This was Once-Altemiak, using his own voice.
Chaos and Order were in balance before your incursions upset it. We had already achieved what your foolishness sought to assure.

I wonder about that, my brother
, said Once-Malbranche.
Perhaps I deluded myself into assuming we could go on as we were into eternity. But I believe we were being absorbed - slowly, inevitably. I was becoming one with Order and you, one with Chaos. No longer masters but advocates. How long then until balance became less important than domination? Perhaps these intrusions were necessary to preserve what exists. We were too long suppressed by the gods to maintain the strength necessary to remain overlords of the Otherverse. By the time they departed, we were too weak to stand aloof. Let Chaos do what is necessary to maintain itself. And let Order do what is necessary to maintain itself. In the name of balance and cooperation, let the reconstituted Lord of Order and Lord of Chaos forge a new alliance.

There was assent without words. With Once-Sorial and Once-Alicia firmly entrenched in their positions, nothing could be as it had been under the previous regime. Even Once-Altemiak conceded this much although he would agree to little else. For Once-Malbranche, whose individual structure had been suffocated by Once-Sorial’s influence, the results were bittersweet. Disaster had been averted but at the cost of his individuality.

Was it worth it?
asked Once-Alicia.

He considered before responding.
It was necessary. It had to be done. It was my duty.

There’s no path back, but we knew that would be the case.

There’s no longer a “Sorial” or “Alicia” to return to. We’re creatures of Order and Chaos. The Otherverse is our home. In a real sense, we’re gods here. Have you ever desired immortality?
He hadn’t, but getting things he didn’t want had been the story of his life as Sorial, The Lord of Earth, and now The Lord of Order.

Once-Alicia chuckled.
No sane entity ever desires immortality. Long life, perhaps, but not endless life. Who knows how long the Otherverse will endure? I don’t think it will be forever but, no matter how long it is, it will be bearable because we’re together. Some of my memories are muddy but not the one of the last night we spent in Vantok. That’s as clear as the billions of particles darting around us now. We’ll find a way to recreate it here. We don’t need bodies of matter for that.

I love you, My Lady of Chaos.

And I love you, stableboy. A day ago, as our old selves, we had only a few hours. Now as our new selves, we have a very long time. Perhaps even forever.

Once-Malbranche might have protested, but the weight of Once-Sorial’s feelings silenced him. And, at least in this matter, Once-Altemiak was pleased because there was nothing more conducive to Chaos than love.

* * *

It had been a long, hard climb for Queen Myselene, but she had done it alone, leaving behind her wizard and her guards. Rexall, overprotective as always, hadn’t wanted her to go alone. Lavella, concerned that her leader would trip and fall into the portal, had added her voice to Rexall’s. But what was the point of wearing a crown if one couldn’t overrule others even when they had one’s best interests at heart? This was something Myselene had to do, and she had to do it by herself without eyes watching her actions and ears hearing her words.

Help wasn’t far away, although she didn’t expect to need it. On the outside, the portal chamber was ringed with soldiers. After her forces had discovered this fortress two seasons ago, she had gone to great lengths to ensure that it was under constant guard. Twenty score of her most capable soldiers were permanently camped on the portal’s doorstep and Lavella had taken magical measures to ensure that no one unauthorized approached this location. Other than the palace in Vantok, this was the most carefully protected place on the continent.

This was only the second time Myselene had seen a portal; its appearance mirrored the one in Ibitsal. Sorial and Alicia’s attempts to enter the Otherverse had rendered the two portals closest to civilization dead. This one was situated in a sheltered valley in the southern portions of the Forbidden Lands’ Sitrap Mountains. It was the only portal still known to be active. For obvious reasons, its protection was a paramount concern.

Had the destruction of the Ibitsal and Havenham portals borne fruit? Almost a year later, Myselene didn’t know. Lavella believed Sorial had made it through but probably not Alicia. The queen hoped to learn the truth today. It was the one-year anniversary of Kara’s birth - the day she and Sorial had agreed to commune if possible.

She sat cross-legged on the apron and waited. She was prepared to be here all day if necessary. There was no guarantee the former wizard would contact her or, indeed, that it was possible for him to do so. Just because Sorial’s mother and brother had found a way to speak from the far side of the gateway was no guarantee that the deed could be replicated.

Sitting on the cold stone wasn’t the most comfortable of positions and the sweat from the extreme heat of the southern mountains was plastering her too-heavy clothing to her body but she dozed off anyway. As the monarch of a growing kingdom with an infant to care for, she had discovered sleep to be an often desired but rarely obtained commodity. She had learned to seize it whenever and wherever possible, even if that was while in the middle of the wilderness awaiting the appearance of a phantom.

When she awoke, he was there - not Sorial, the diminished Lord of Earth but Once-Sorial, the shining Lord of Order.

It was a gleaming, shimmering avatar - insubstantial but crackling with power. She could almost see through it; the far wall of the chamber teased her vision but the details of the ghost’s features were evident.  This representation was of Sorial as he had been before her first meeting with him: unscarred, with his limbs intact. He wore the trace of a smile.

“Your Majesty,” he intoned. The words were spoken directly into the queen’s mind. She didn’t know whether they were also said aloud. It didn’t matter. Sorial’s voice sounded as she remembered it, albeit with more resonance.

“Your Magus. It’s good to see you, even if in unusual circumstances. The world has been a lonelier place since your… transition.”

“Has it been a year? Yes, I suppose so. Time in the Otherverse moves differently. It ebbs and flows rather than streaming at a constant rate. I’m still in the beginning stages here - there’s so much more to be done before a final, lasting state of equilibrium is reached.”

“Then you’ve succeeded?” She couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice. For weeks on end, she had lived in dread that each day might be the last, that unspeakable devastation would be visited on the world in a form that couldn’t be fought or countered.

“To the extent that my goal was to protect the universe of matter from an instability in the Otherverse, yes. The world is safe. At night, you can lay your head on your pillow with the assurance that nothing will pour out of the Otherverse in the darkness.”

“And you, are you well?”

“I am what I am. The Lord of Order. That’s not merely a title; it’s what I have become. Only a part of me is what you knew as Sorial. I have his memories, his feelings, and at least a fragment of his personality. But I am also another man and we are both changed. The Otherverse isn’t about seeing and hearing and feeling things as aggregates. It’s about dissecting energy to manipulate every particle. The Lord of Order brings organization to those particles. The Lord of Chaos controls their randomness and unpredictability. We work together as best we can. Our end goal - the continued survival of both realms - is the same. The forces we control are in constant contention but we are not.

“Balance is the key. Neither Order nor Chaos can be permitted to overwhelm the other. If Order was to triumph and eliminate Chaos, the result would be an absolute stasis throughout the Otherverse and into the universe of matter. You wouldn’t die but you would become frozen forever in a sliver of time, unable to move or even think. That’s the ultimate manifestation of Order: total paralysis. If Chaos was to consumer order, rampant entropy would eat away everything until nothing was left but death and dissolution.”

Myselene smiled a sad little smile. “I’m afraid I don’t understand most of what you say. As Sorial, you once told me how much you despised those who spoke in riddles. Now that’s how you talk.”

The Lord of Order laughed. “And I thought I was being unusually plain. No matter. You asked if I was well. It’s a question I can’t answer in terms that wouldn’t seem cryptic and evasive. Suffice it to say that I exist.”

“Exist? Are you alive?”

“Not in a way that would matter to you. My body is gone, burned away by the gateway as I entered the Otherverse. Pure matter can’t survive in here just as unfettered energy cannot survive in your world. But my essence made the transition into the Otherverse and merged with elements already there to become The Lord of Order.”

“And Alicia?”

“I’m here.” The disembodied voice sounded like Alicia but with a harsher quality. There was no physical manifestation.

“She’s in the Otherverse with me, wedded to Chaos,” said The Lord of Order. “Although only a portion of her survived the passage. Something went wrong in the transition.”

“Lavella told me she was betrayed by the other two wizards. I forget their names.”

“Excela and Dorthik.” There was contempt in Once-Alicia’s voice.

Myselene nodded. Names she hadn’t heard in some time and whose existence wouldn’t be recorded for posterity. “Whatever the results, their goal was anything but heroic. Lavella executed Excela and Dorthik on the spot for high treason. They tried to bring her down but she proved too strong for them. She has a streak of ruthlessness that none of us suspected. At the moment, she’s the only wizard. We’re grooming promising young candidates to fill the other three positions. Lavella rejected all of Ferguson’s choices, deeming them unsuitable for one reason or another. After what happened with Alicia at the Ibitsal portal, I don’t think she trusts any of them.

“Kara isn’t with me because we don’t know whether or not she has the capacity for magic. Although history tells us that a girl doesn’t hear the portal’s call until after the shedding of her first woman’s blood, we didn’t want to risk it. Lavella knows the truth of her parentage and has agreed to wait until she’s old enough before offering transformations to others. Kara, as the next leader of the Vantok-Obis Empire, must have the first opportunity to wield magic if it’s her birthright. So it will be fourteen years before the next generation of wizards takes their place alongside Lavella. Until then, she is both
Magus Prime
and
Magus Sola.
”