Urshure.
[Warlock: Envoy of the Prismatic Queen, Step 3: Clan.]
[Step 2 Reward: Evolution - [Tiamat's Pheromones] - The touch of your patron has imbued you with her mark, making you known to all true dragons whilst simultaneously masking your ties with your fellow dragonborne.]
[Step 2 Reward: Transformation - [Red Shadow Dragonborne] - Due to the time spent in the Realm of Shadows, the entropic energies have permanently corrupted you, transforming your flesh and the arcane fire within with the cold touch of darkness and death.]
[Now that you have completed the Trial of Five Deaths, you emerge as a creature of the night, ready to build a clan of devoted cultists by having them undergo the same ritual.]
***
"This is your duty."
I bowed, opening my eyes just barely to see the coveted talisman floating above the inky muck. Then they closed. "I follow eternally, my Queen."
A series of approving clicks preceded the Queen's departure, giving me reign to rise and clutch the talisman in both claws to look upon its glory. A claw-sized coin of gold emblazoned with what used to be the heads of the Seven Venerated Chromatics. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
And now, Black. Darkness. Gloom.
To eventually make more dragonborne to serve the gloom: this was my duty for my Queen. But for the Emperor of Dusk, I had a mission. The muck and the shades, the Five Deaths. That was my mission. Both for myself and others.
A small, sacrilegious thought crossed my mind as I turned, seeing a giant of a humanoid with the curled horns of a ram. A faceless creature. A nightmare. Many were fought over the past month. Many, and many more foul creatures of the eternal night. But now, I was the night itself. And that blank face looked upon me, not as an intruder. But as a member of its clan.
"Lost." A low, droning voice echoed for minutes on end as it bent impossibly low, reaching out a clawed hand for me to climb onto and be carried.
Carried across the gloomy land of fetid trees, squirming bogs, and purple rains. My domain. The Shadow Realm.
I was carried back to my lair, where a dozen faces stood waiting for me, led by the creatures who favored blood. Creatures of the night, like me.
"Of course! This is where you've been!" Came a laugh that, just a year ago, would have agitated me. Now, however, Elijah of the Blackblood was clan. Thus his words were welcomed with as much warmth as this realm could afford.
"Yes." I clasped his arm tightly. "Becoming darkness. Your being here suggests you or yours must undergo the Trial of Five Deaths also."
"Erm. Yeah," he said with clear uncertainty. "That, and knowledge of the Venerated."
"The original true dragons." I nodded, gesturing to the foyer for them to sit. "The Nonusian Tree of Life's first offspring was the Platinum Dragon and the Prismatic Queen Tiamat. Their offspring were the first metallic and chromatic dragons. Those who come from their bloodline are the Venerated, retaining the memories of the Draconic Deities through genetic inheritance. Yet, after they hatched, the Tree of Life birthed the same types of dragons. And yet they are lesser."
"And the Exalted Gloom is from a venerated bloodline." Elijah wisely presumed.
I nodded in accordance. "Precisely. And now that she has become a dragon of shadow, allied with the Eternal Champion, the Prismatic Queen now has an edge over the Platinum Dragon. Thus she wishes for this new draconic phenotype to grow in numbers."
"There is no concern over there being a dragon of light," I added soon after. "Not unless Amun creates a dragon of twilight or moonlight with his essence. Even if that were the case, they would still act in accordance with his beliefs. The risks are acceptable to the Queen. Thus I shall make the same happen with dragonborne."
"I guess that explains it." Elijah sheepishly smiled.
"That it does." I shook his shoulder firmly before rising to head deeper into the lair. "Come. Let us begin your trials."
"The Five Deaths, right?" One of the humans behind us asked.
"Yes." I nodded without looking their way. "A ritual that sacrifices a part of one's spirit to the Shadow Realm. Giving you longevity and strength by virtue of darkness. Now," I paused before the foolishly named room of temporal displacement and faced them. "Strip."
The humans exchanged weary glances with each other before turning to Elijah, already in the nude and halfway inside the chamber.
"NoxNet will explain the process to you. Then it will temporarily cease function, leaving you on your own." I gave a small nod to the lot of them in a display of confidence. Then shut the door. "I will see you on the other side."
True to my word, I remained outside the chamber for five nights. That was the least I could do to show my support, for their trials would last five months from their perspectives. Five months of hardships that I knew firsthand. Thus I would see through theirs until the end. Watching intently, night after night.
The Death of Emotion proceeded smoothly. But being the first, it was the easiest. Meant to invoke the object of one's hatred and vanquish it forever from the mind, body, spirit, and soul; erasing it from their memory.
Rarer was it to not have an object of hatred. Even Amun was not among those rare ones. For he had many things- abstract things, that he hated. Regardless, be they former oppressors, betrayers, or otherwise, they let their anger go and moved on to the second night.
The Death of Body. It was the most troublesome for Elijah and his two senior subordinates. For the vampires, being on the brink of starvation while an ocean of blood sat forever out of reach was the greatest torture imaginable. The wails of suffering men were a song of inebriation to the soul, bringing a sense of torment and suffering to all who heard it.
Especially when the one singing was clan.
But I endured. And so too did Elijah, continuing proud into the third night. A night all were used to.
The Death of Persona was a month of pestilent loneliness that seemed like something we were all used to. Perhaps that, I mused, was why we were both chosen and chose to follow Gloom.
It was a night that pushed isolating thoughts on the mind in a way that a cold dark room could not imagine. It conjured visions of losing friends to death, betrayal, and ruined relationships. It forced thoughts of forever being alone during the course of several eternities; of being cast out and declared as a pariah to all the realms and beyond.
Any cry for help, any plea for company, was seen as a coming of the dawn. A failure of the night and means to restart it. Many of them repeated the night time after time after time after…
Only when they ventured through the night with naught a peep could they continue one to the fourth Death.
Like the first, the Death of Mind was that of a fearful night that involved conjuring one's greatest fear and overcoming it. Not by vanquishing it. But by accepting the object of one's fear wholly. In turn, it dispersed the primitive ramblings of the mind that made the night so troubling to us. Bringing them to the fifth and final death.
By far, the most troublesome one.
Like the first and the fourth, something had to be conjured for the Death of Spirit. Not the object of one's anger or the item of one's terror, but their moment of pure happiness. Pure joy. Utter bliss. They were to give up their most precious memory. The one that held the most of their spirit.
For the humans, Art and Kele, it was an almost insurmountable task. For it involved the day they were freed from their bondage. But eventually, like myself, they came to terms with them having another day to venerate.
The day they swore themselves to the Exalted Gloom.
For Elijah, it was different. His moment was significant, but already a lost part of him. A memory of a time gone, before he died. Thus he was the first to emerge changed. And the only to emerge with no changes. He was already a creature of death. A creature of blood. Doubly so, a creature of the night.
Although the same was true for Art and Kele, they were vampire spawns. Thus they were the ones to emerge as Vampiric Shades. Beings with eldritch markings of darkness imposed upon their pale flesh. Beings reinforced in stature by way of the same stuff of shadows found in the Doppelgangers and the shadow undead. With darkness at their command, they gracefully and effortlessly received my instruction riding, maneuvering, and caring for their mounts; eventually gaining enough prowess to keep up with my maneuvers in midair.
Which, in itself sparked an internal debate that nearly pulled me to the Material Plane behind Elijah and his Shades when I heard the thunder rattling in the skies.
"Who," I wondered, "would win now between us winged commanders?"
***
Duke.
[Ranger: Thunder Strider, Step 3: Supersonic.]
***
"Faster!" I flapped, feeling the howling winds around my feathers as a wall of insurmountable force.
"Faster!" With all my might, I flapped, attempting to push past that barrier and stride.
"FASTER!" I knew I felt it. The silence. The peace. The clap. I felt it before I crossed the end of the line and it all came crashing back into the wind, eventually turning to snow and upturned chunks of frozen dirt.
"Dammit!" I slammed my fist down, ignoring the dull pains of the consequences shortly after.
"I suppose I should stop being stubborn eventually," I told no one in particular, for my subordinates had gone elsewhere to learn how to fly using those metallic birds. And so, feeling a bit foolish for conversing with myself, I turned my eyes to the sky. "Amun, if you are there. I could use some consultation."
The final word hadn't even left my beak by the time I heard the telltale voice behind me. Along with a few others.
"I'm always here, Duke. It's been too long since we've spoken."
I turned with a sense of gratitude nearly overwhelming me and found my hand already outstretched towards Amun, in the flesh. "I understand completely." I waved the matter aside with my free hand. "As Guildmaster, you have far more work than the rest of us. Even more so now, it seems."
He laughed through his nose as I gazed over the small child floating close by. And his wolves, lounging in the snow nearby. "Skoll, Hati." I bowed to them. "How radiant you two appear. No longer shadow wolves, are we?"
They growled in disapproval- in disdain.
"They rejected the divine energy of my realm and became celestial direwolves of the seasons instead." Amun laughed.
"Hi!"
I looked down to see the little girl with blue eyes reaching towards my feathers. "Hello." I bowed.
"I'm Iris Cole. I've never met a bird person before. I'm gonna make arms like these. I can help you go faster."
I could hardly make sense of the rapid exchange of words. Truly, all I could do was look at Amun, who wore a proud smile on his face as he nodded in approval.
"Okay, then." I nodded to the girl- Iris. "However, I must say that it is rude to call me a 'bird person.' I am a proud Aarakocra. You may call me Duke."
"Okay, Duke. Forgive me. I won't call you that anymore."
"Thank you." I bowed. "What do you suggest, Iris?"
"Okay!" She leaped skyward, making her legs… disappear.
Up to the thighs. They simply… vanished. Yet she floated there. And Amun just stood there as if it were completely normal.
"It may sound a bit weird. But you need to put more power into beating your wings than displacing air. That will happen by itself. Just keep diving and beating harder. Not faster. And when it happens, just start kicking."
Amun so childishly snickered at her advice. But I had concerns.
"I run the risk of smashing into the ground with each dive," I said in a tone that sounded more pleading than I admired. "I cannot count how many times I have, as my companions say, eaten dirt."
"Amun will keep you safe." She so innocently smiled. "Just keep diving. Have faith."
"I am normally not one of faith," I told her with a weak smile. "However, I trust Amun as a friend with every fiber of my being."
With no hesitation, that innocent smile grew wider than otherwise possible. "Trust is a type of faith."
With those few words, and with those eyes that screamed that they believed I could do anything, I was left with no choice.
As I had done hundreds of times before, I climbed higher than the Shards of Mani, breaching the clouds until I came upon the sky's edge. Only this time, I was accompanied by Iris. A human with amputated legs that breathed fire. A little girl who believed I could achieve this.
And so I would.
I reached my apex and turned, as I had done hundreds of times before. Only this time, I took heed to the words of Iris.
"Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap." She chanted. Quieter and quieter each time as the rushing wind around my feathers returned that insurmountable force.
"Stronger. Stronger. Faster. Faster." She chanted, attempting to push me past that barrier, even as the ground rushed up to meet me.
"FLAP!" She shouted as I crossed the end of the line. But this time, I did not pull up. I did not alter my course. I did not even close my eyes. I flapped.
Into the suddenly bright light, I flapped. And once I was swallowed by an infinite darkness, I flapped again.
"Flap!"
The words were muffled as if Iris' shout produced a percussive force that threatened to send me forward if I didn't…
"Kick!" I kicked out in equal parts instinct and trust in Iris' words, feeling a solid platform beneath my feet as I did so and launched through the silent barrier.
"Flap!" Iris echoed in my mind from somewhere, but all I saw was blue energy and white clouds. Yet, I flapped.
"Kick!"
I kicked.
"Flap!"
I flapped.
"Stride on the thunder of your sonic booms!" Iris cheered.
I did just that. Zipping and flipping and darting through the air on those thunderous platforms until I came to a grinding halt before Amun and the prodigal child. And then, I saw it: the crackling electricity dancing off of my feathers and the arcane words detailing the new perks associated with my class.
"An immunity to electricity and." I looked at my talons and laughed. "Thunder Striders. I could not have done it without you."
"Not so," Amun smirked, giving me a pat on the shoulder. And in that moment, I saw a deep ravine that, should I have dove into it, would have given me more than a few moments to spare. "You just had to find the right place and thread the needle."
"In that case." I offered a dry laugh to the river of goblins seen within that ravine. "The statement stands."
"Eh." Amun shrugged in disagreement while his eyes remained north. Where, over the mountain, an unnatural lightning storm was taking shape.
---
[Step 3 Reward: Passive Skill [Atmospheric Sensing] - Your prowess in the sky has increased such that your senses have opened to the very skies themselves, allowing you to read the flows of air and water almost subconsciously.]
[Step 3 Reward: Transformation [Thunder Striding Talons] - The might of thunder imbued in your talons causes them to treat your sonic booms as mere stepping stones, enabling you to stride in the wake of your supersonic flight.]
[Step 3 Reward: Transformation [Lightning Dust Feathers] - The touch of lightning imbued into your feathers grants you the means to control and ride lightning whilst simultaneously making you immune from it.]
[To continue down the path of the Thunder Strider, you must make your way to the most turbulent skies and find your place within them.]