Nano II

“’You know I never will do such a thing, I came to negotiate for the return of my city, not to deliver messages to the leaders of the sky cities’ He said, feeling much more confident than he did when he had first encountered the Rex Vivimortuum from his two month stay on the flagship of the Rex Vivimortuum.

“’Then I have one more thing to show you, if you do not change ypour mind then I will allow to return to your city, which I have been supplying limited amounts of food to while you were staying here.’ There upon he began walking to the same door that was hidden in the corner as the last time they had left this room, through the Library which seemed to have expanded since his last visit. The path they followed was nearly the same as the last time through the hallways with in the depths of the Lith Niral. This time however rather than turning right and going up the stair way they went left down a narrow passage with several alcoves with the sarcophagi of the enforcers with in them, the passage turned sharply at several points, widening, and narrowing down until the walls appeared to close in on themselves, creating a narrow slot that narrowed even further until it was a dead end. This the Rex Vivimortuum pushed gently and forced it open to a doorway into the next chamber where there were some large cages lining the walls to the left and right as well as that ahead, save for a small gap between two of the cells that led into the next room. In the cages were humans who seemed to be waiting for their doom to come, however once they saw he Lord Mayor, they all stood and began shouting for him to rescue them, take them out of the cages and free them. Then they recognized the man standing silently behind him and slowly the shouts for freedom were quieted as the full meaning of the tattooed man was clear they told him that he was doomed and might as well as just accept the fate that awaited all who came to them.

“It was then that one of the prisoners recognized the one man not in a cage as the Lord Mayor of Hicrotles. ‘Sir, why are you here, I thought that all the Lord Mayors were in Dradra to disscuss the threat to the nations.’

“’Who are you, man, and how do you know me?’ the Lord Mayor asked the ragged knife like man.

“’You are the Lord Mayor of Hicrotles, I saw you once many years ago in one of the public parades during a stint in the bowels of your fair city. I am or was a trader one of the best flyers in the world. I am Travistar and I am at your service Lord Mayor, as good as it can be, locked up in here in this cage of the dead one’s devising. Many people have come and gone while I have been here they were of all nations, all styles that I have ever seen in my journeys across the cloud ways nobles and commoners have all been thrown to the crates and taken away while I have been here. But how did you come to be caught by the Dead One and his fleet of towns?’

“’I am here as a negotiating party between my city, held in place and under siege by the Rex Vivimortuum and his fleet, and the man himself.’

“’Is that the Dead One’s name?’

“’Come,’ the figure dressed in the black and white robes with the life like embroidery and the tattooed head said in his dangerous and quiet voice. He began walking down the center of the room toward the next chamber. The Lord Mayor had no choice but to follow, as the passage way that had opened up into this room was closed again and he really felt uncomfortable being free in a room full of caged people, more so now that they knew who he was and could associate that his higher rank had earned him the freedom of the ship when they were doomed to be destroyed or worse. The next chamber held larger cages, these made of silver so that the horrible beings inside of them could not get free, this was chamber in which the berserkers were kept in a horrible state of imprisonment, possibly worse than that of the humans in the previous chamber.

The berserkers were each kept in a different cell, these were arranged in such a way that none of the berserkers could reach into another cell. The reason was apparent almost immediately after he had stepped in to the room and the berserker in the nearest cage lurched into the silver, burning itself badly in the process, of trying to reach him, to tear him to pieced and not caring at all for the pain that it suffered until it realized that it could not reach him. The berserkers were kept in these cells until they were released upon a city or town, here they were not fed at all, here they were in the constant presence of the scent of humans but they could not actually eat anything, starving they sat and waited for the next raid on a town or city. Berserkers were creatures of large size and seemed to be pieced together from the common Silbith into beasts of great destructive properties and just plain scary proportions.

Around the room and placed on the balconies above the cages were enforcers, each holding a arc current staff, that was fully ready and these were tipped in silver spikes above the decorative bat. These were never more than ten feet from another and none of them stood lax as though they were no great danger. In the center of this room there was an elevator that was made with silver bars and was filled with more cells, this was a thirty foot high structure. At the top you could see the ropes which allowed it to be guided by a skilled workman, the magic that powered the elevator was not strong enough to guide it by it self but made the hadling of the great mass much easier. Around the elevator the two walked to the next passage into the depths of the prisons of the Lith Niral, great ship that it once was.

The next room held the remains of that great feeding frenzy that the Lord Mayor had been forced to watch in his day aboard this ship, the uteri of half a dozen women with the teeth that had been put into them. Now they were barely recognizable as those item that had been taken out of the feeding chamber by the enforcers, bloated and elongated, they looked ready to burst. A number of mages were gathered around the room in a perfect circle around the center of the room. The floor was marked by a circle that ran around the room, inside of the circle was another, about one foot inside the first, the intervening space had many symbols of power that even now the mages were carefully looking these over as though in preparation for some great magical event. While they were checking the symbols a few others were carefully levitating the uteri into the center of the design on the floor. Continuing in from that inner circle were lines that met the circle at five points and left in the center of the room a space about ten feet across this space was ringed by another circle of powerful symbols that were obviously meant to contain anything that was crazy enough to be summoned by a pack of spell casters and then attack them. This circle like the out side one was drawn in silver and the symbols of power were also drawn in silver, but work was done so finely that it seemed that the silver in the inner circle was actually flowing through the symbols where they touched. Soon an enforcer came to him and instructed that he stand outside the circle, in the corner of the room so that he would not be harmed by the ritual.

“The rex Vivimortuum entered the outside circle and moved purposely toward the inner circle as the mages took up a chant in the arcaic languages of the past. ‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel…’ The out side circle began to glow with the power of the phrases uttered by the circle of moth circlet mages, the symbols seeming to catch light one at a time but spreading toward the conduits of the pentagram leading to the center.

“‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel. Florg hithmeel hyjumar rex necros’ The glow began to pour down the five conduit lines toward the inner circle where the Rex Vivimortuum stood standing in the inner circle, holding two rods, the ends of which were silver and shaped in the form of a hawk and a snake.

“‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel. Florg hithmeel hyjumar rex necros’ As the glow reached the center circle the symbols there began to glow, the heat burning across the middle ground in which no living flesh could survive. The uteri that stood there in front of the Rex Vivimortuum began to burn away, slowly dissolving into a smoked husk of their former size, rips appeared along the sides as they closed around the forms inside of them.

“‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel. Florg hithmeel hyjumar rex necros’ Up from the burning environment within the smoking wreck came a body, not just any body but one that could easily have torn the thin man in front of it apart, it was a berserker. The Rex Vivimortuum approached the blind and quivering beast, still unaware of its surroundings, and pushed the first brand into the flesh on its wrist. This caused the beast to bellow, open its eyes for the first time since it had been released from death. It tried to throw its tormentor from it, but failed to toss the Rex Vivimortuum further than the very edge of the circle of power surrounding the battle as it progressed, the man stood and walked boldly up to the monster in front of him even as another was standing behind him blinking in confusion.

“‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel. Florg hithmeel hyjumar rex necros’ The Rex Vivimortuum approached the monster that gad stood first even as the circles were given more confining power. He leaped at and stuck the snake shaped brand onto the other wrist, as soon as the branding was complete the monster was docile to his touch though obviously it was unwilling to and helped him subdue the next monster, also a berserker, so it could be branded.

“‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel. Florg hithmeel hyjumar rex necros’ The next to arrive from the depths of death was a common Silbith ready to attack the first thing to approach it, the Rex Vivimortuum had no trouble holding it back and branding it to his marks.

“‘Dos mun itrerthyk, shillnon ty formunas frescened niklsthel. Florg hithmeel hyjumar rex necros’ The next three to stand were common Silbith as well. As soon as they were all branded the chant ended and the power flowing from the casters began to recede as the enforcers around the outer circle took the spent casters away as soon as they had severed themselves from the pentagram. The remaining enforcers took the vacated positions and moved slowly inward as soon as the circle was cool enough to cross, the power that still remained in the circles was flowing along the conduits toward the center but even the inner circle was losing its heat and glow, the silver was cooling rapidly where the glow was extinguished. As the enforcers drew their enclosure tighter they doubled their line. The beasts within the inner circle were held there against their will while the last of the glow left the surrounding silver designs. By the time they could leave the inner circle the enforcers were in a line three deep out side of it and forced the monsters to go with them using their arc current staffs to keep the beasts in line. The Rex Vivimortuum stayed behind by leaping over the line as it came toward him.

“’Was that a nice show, did you understand its signifigance?’ He asked, the man looking far weaker than he ever had in the presence of any human that was not behind bars in the prison through which he had to pass on his way out from here. The Lord Mayor looked puzzled, he had no idea what signifigance could have been of the show, the birth of new Silbith was a horrible thing as far he was concerned. ‘The Silbith are only controllable by me or one like me, however there are none like me, for I made sure that I killed all of them before I was imprisoned. If the humans wish to stop their cities from falling to the ground they will be forced to allow me my whishes, for even the berserkers are intelligent enough to fly a ship to another city or town. Only I can control them, acquiesce to my request or I will enslave all of humanity and destroy the proud cities and towns that dare to fight me. Would like me to write this down or do you think that you can remember it?’

“’I can remember, but perhaps you should write it down, the governing bodies always approve of written proposals.’

“’Very well, you have the freedom of the ship for the next two hours, after which you will be found and brought to your ship, you have the choice of returning to your doomed city or carrying the message to the Council of Seven as it is called now, though if you don’t return it would be the Council of Six. That doesn’t sound nearly as impressive, though so I suggest that you deliver the message to them. You are dismissed’

The Lord Mayor wandered the long corridors of the ship, resting when he felt like he ought to, thinking about the choice that lay ahead of him, to assure his subjects that he was alive and helping them or to return the Council and do some work toward helping. The idea that the Council was the best approach convinced him that it was the best move he could make at this time and so he went in search of the Rex Vivimortuum hoping to tell him of his decision and to demand that he leave now, right this instant. He never got to tell the Rex Vivimortuum this because he never found the man, however at the end of two hours several enforcers found him gave him a message and guided him to his ship, docked to the Lith Niral, right where it had been guided in by the magic that the many casters of the fleet arrayed out in front of him were able to wield. As he walked along the balcony that ran the length of the Lith Niral he saw that the fleet had grown in power and size since he had last seen it two months ago. It now contained several more ship cities, as well as many more towns of various sizes. Each providing a new platform to furnish the great ships the were all leaving them at a constant rate, even as he watched there was a ship that lifted off a small town and flew toward the east, where the sun still stood.

“It was not long before the Lord Mayor was on his way to the city in Dradra where the Lord Mayors were awaiting his report with utmost attention. Within a week he was inside the city walls walking toward the Council chambers, the message he was to deliver was quite clear as well as the way to solve the problem. Entering the Mayorial complex of Dradra, he blundered past the surprised guards straight to the Council chambers, unannounced but welcome anyway. He hadn’t bothered to inform anyone of his return to the city until he had docked up and was already movng toward the complex.

“He was welcomed and asked what the situation was, even as he began to speak of it. ‘The Rex Vivimortuum kept me aboard his ship for two months, to the day he saw me twice, once on my first day there and once on the last day. On each of these occasions he made mne watch something of the way these Silbith live. The first day I was taken to see, from a safe location, several common Silbith feeding and the higher class feeding on the remnants of the commons’ feast. The second time I was made to watch the birth of several Silbith, two berserkers and four common. The message was explained to me after the ceremony, the only one who can control the Silbith is this Rex Vivimortuum. His message was simple, I quote from this note he wrote “The Silbith are only controllable by me or one like me, however there are none like me, for I made sure that I killed all of them before I was imprisoned. If the humans wish to stop their cities from falling to the ground they will be forced to allow me my whishes, for even the berserkers are intelligent enough to fly a ship to another city or town. Only I can control them, acquiesce to my request or I will enslave all of humanity and destroy the proud cities and towns that dare to fight me.” What do you say in response?’

The Council began to debate the integrity of the message and its intricacies. They soon ran out of things to discuss and were forced to make a decision.” The man stood, wearing his new robes of black and white. Across his eyes was the same dark hair that had stood over them since he had arrived in town. He moved slowly toward the doorway into the Fickle Wind. Drawing his hood up before crossing the line of sunlight that still reflected off the loose shutter across the street, he moved with the glide of one who is supremely confident in his abilities and has nothing to fear.

Gerold noticed the man come in from his story telling and watched as he climbed the stair way, a small smile playing on the man’s lips. Gerold thought the man was a queer figure, never allowing the sun to touch himself was not natural. If he were an albino that might account for it though the inn keep knew that the man was no albino, the blue eyes gave that away instantly, as everyone knew that albinos had red eyes.


The man came out the next day to a larger crowd than ever before, this time he was dressed even more uniquely than before in a completely black robe that seemed rather bulky, but he kept his hood drawn up even as he sat down and began to tell the story. Today he carried a wrapped staff and a belt with several vials of various colored liquids and powders with in them. It was obvious that he was wearing glasses, even under his hood. The cloth that his gloves were made from seemed to be soaking with some liquid, while it was not leather for his gloves that seemed to be strange. “Gather round, gather round if ye wish to hear the tale of ‘Hicrotles’ Fall’” he shouted to the crowd and they turned toward him and quieted as he sat down. “The Council of Seven reached their decision, and dispatched the Lord Mayor of Hicrotles to carry word to his city of the plans, as well as deliver the message to the Rex Vivimortuum. As he left he saw that the skies around the city, Dradra, were filled with all the ships of the nations, each being redesigned with the help of every available arc mage in the nations. The great fleet was assembling for war, a greater fleet than had ever been built before.

“The Lord Mayor left in a slow but comfortable ship a few days ahead of the fleet that was to destroy that of the Rex Vivimortuum before they could ever begin to suspect the doom that came just a few days behind this lone messenger. As before, the ship was grabbed by the magicks of the mages and pulled through the gathering of towns and cities to the Lith Niral. Here he was pushed to the docking plates and stood in his place as the hatch was prized open from the other side and two enforcers entered to take him to the chambers of the Rex Vivimortuum. The passage was similar to that which he had followed last time he was here, however it had much more aesthetic value now. The walls had been sheered off to form perfect angles, the rubble that had previously been swept to the sides of the halls was now gone.

“The entrance hall to the private chambers of the Rex Vivimortuum was now more organized, some of the walls were now lined with shelves, the treasures placed upon these the rest was placed neatly in a aesthetically valuable pile. Chests were left open, with jewels hanging out, a proper number that seemed to hint at vast amounts of treasure within, hinted at far more than could possibly fit inside any of the chests. Art work was hung on walls, some of the most valuable pieces he had ever seen were hanging there just waiting to be taken. But the grand ruby pendant that hung from two nails so that it just barely fell below the upper frame of the passage that now was clean and neat, with treasure piled on either side so as to frame it in value, was without doubt the most valuable item among the treasures, save for the sarcophagi, which were now obscured by the treasure heaped along side them.

“The Lord Mayor stood there, this time not in fear or question but in wonder, asking where all this material wealth could have come from, for he was sure that many of the items were of the most extreme value and were probably worth more than his entire cities supply of food in a single year. This time the voice came out of the passage way ahead, that same dark and mysterious voice, that same dangerous and almost hypnotic voice, that voice of the Rex Vivimortuum, ‘Vivimortos desinete.’ The sarcophagi that now stood half-way open closed with small thuds from around the room Startling the Lord Mayor when he realized that the voice was directed at the enforcers hidden within the sarcophagi that opened silently now that there were no mounds of jewels to impede their covers progress across the floor. ‘Come Lord Mayor, I wish to hear why you have returned. Be welcome to my hospitality again, I guarantee your safety for two months here.’

The Lord Mayor walked down the passage, below the perfect red ruby and followed the way into the darkness, which was not longer lit with red light only. The many colors of the spectrum were now flashing in a way that only someone using powerful halucinagenics could have come up with. The way was now marked by more valuable gems that hung from the ceiling of the tunnel like passage, here a blue, ten feet further down a green, then a yellow, and finally at the end of the passage there was a sight that made the Lored Mayor stop and stare, the light beyond that final area was white light. It was only within the passage way that the light was crazy and multi colored, this was because of the massive gem hanging down in front of the exit into the next room.

“A single gem that nearly filled the whole of the passage, twisting and turning on the giant rope that it was held upon, through the middle was a rectangular orfice cut with the most care and precision that it in no way affected the display behind it. On the other side of this hole was the chamber and it appeared to be a truly beautiful place now that it was bathed in the light from all parts of the visible spectrum. The gem was cut in such an exquisite way that it entranced the Lord Mayor before he had even seen the room ahead. He approached the gem and when he came closer saw that the only way through the gem hanging in the way was through the tunnel cut through it. The way around the gem was not wide enough to permit travel without coming through shredded to pieces, it seemed that the extra space was only there to allow for the convulted spinning of the great gem. But the passage went through the gem and then was nearly completely dark. The cuts in the gem were such that the passage through the middle was bathd only in the most minimal amount of light. The Lord Mayor entered and lost his balance, falling through and narrowly avoiding the jagged walls that kept light out of the passage. He stood up this time bracing himself against the gems walls. When his hands touched the cool surface of the gem, he was rewarded with a little light that was diverted by the oil stains that he had left behind.

“When he made it through and stepped to the side of the dark beam of no light in a room full of light. He saw that the great pillars which had been only vague shadows last ime he had been here were truly beautiful sculptures, each with reflecting eyes made of blue stone. The statues were all humanoid, except one that was in the exact center of the room, unseen cue to the way the light had been focused last time he was here. This was a vast arcing stone arch, meeting another that came down from the ceiling in the center of the room. This point was also the meeting place of two more arches, parallel to the ground, and stretching to the walls. This was an amazing work, partially because of its sizev and the fact that it was in this room, how had they gotten it in here with out completely tearing the ship apart to place it inside the walls.

“Once again at the far end of the room was a man clothed in black and white with the magical sequins designed in the likeliness of the hawk and the snake, with his head tattooed with the three animals; bat, wolf, and moth. It was not long before the Lord Mayor stood before the man in his best and most regal pose. ‘I trust you enjoyed the new additions to my wealth,’ the man said, ‘the ruby is my favorite piece, but the diamond that is such and obstacle to new comers is worth the most by far.’

“’Oh, it is an actual diamond? I didn’t know that they could become so large. Though I agree the ruby pedant is by the far the best. It is portable, that counts for quite a lot in my book.’

“’Yes, enough niceties. What did the Council say to my message, I trust you delivered it to them with promtness and that they held their deliberations with utmost speed and are even now preparing to surrender to my demands.’

“’Well, they refuse to surrender, but I am willing to allow to give you the permission to inhabit one or two of the cities that are under my Hicrotles’ control, in exchange for his freedom. I would also like to be with my citizens when the end comes.’

“You may go, quickly now before I lose my patience and tear you to shreds, I must attend to the planning of an invasion of the world.’ He gave the Lord Mayor a glow stick and told him to leave in the same way as usual, for the way in was only in unless you were dead. The Lord Mayor left quickly and crossed the library to the next chamber, now lit by the glow of a thousand lamps in a thousand shades of the all the colors imaginable, including black and infra red. In this room there were three enforcers waiting, they gestured, beckoning for him to follow them. They led him quickly to his ship and as soon as he was onboard, they cut the power to the docking plates. His ship was guided by the magics of the Rex Vivimortuum’s fleet, out of the path of the fleet and sent through the center of a city that stood as part of the blockade to his city.

“Soon he was flying the ship on his own again, now he was inside the field of communication blackout and used a little of his power to tell the city to open for food. The docks closest to him opened and he was pulled inside, quickly clamped down and the hatch was not prized open this time, he was given a few moments to collect himself before he pressed the open button, and the door was opened to let him in to the city that he had ruled for so long. Once inside he quickly took charge of the distribution of food and set up hospitals. Soon after he had accomplished these vital tasks that had not been achieved with out the leadership that the Lord Mayor provided, the man in charge of a city was forced to inform his city of what was to happen in a day and they set to work fashioning weapons of all kinds, designed to keep the Silbith from entering their city, the few remaining ships were outfitted with the weapons of only the most desperate people.

“The fleets that the Council had assembled appeared in the sky, only a few hundred miles off from the trapped city and this massive armada of gigantic proportions closed quickly, as soon as the first ships were within seventy five miles they launched nearly a dozen small single man fighters from each one, with out pause they continued forward. The battle was begun by the approaching army firing upon the invading fleet. When the fleet that was on the denfensive had turned its attention away from the city it was so jealously holding in its grasp, the small fleet of trade ship fell out of the docking holes in the cloud city and opened fire using what seemed to be primitive weapons of minor damage, ballistae mounted on the side of the small newly converted fighter. It was only when the first of these struck a rather large vessel, nearly the size of some of the smaller towns that the real damage that these bolts caused. The light show that began and held for a full second before the metal stick fell of the large ship and plummeted onto another, causing more light until it fell off that one as well and fell to the surface of the world.

“The weapons that they used were really conduction pipes thrown at flying vessels. The smaller ship that the pipe struck fell with ever increasing speed until it was lost with in the mists of the cloud layer. The larger ship that had been struck was not moving, but wasn’t returning fire either, it seemed that they no longer had the mage current to move things around and rain damage upon its destroyers. The rest of the make shift fleet was carrying conduction pipes for ammunition as well. This is the only way that the people who fought against the impressive fleet that the Rex Vivimortuum won, through down the ships and dropping them to the ground.