Toril.
29th of Ianua, 1492.
Ligin Kingdom, Wethion Reservation. City of Korlu, The Devoted Citadel.
2:12 PM.
[Paladin: The Tempest, Step 3: The Oath.]
***
"So, today's the big day, huh?"
Not a second after she spoke those words, our instructor entered the pens with his usual boyish smile. "So, today's the big day, huh?"
"I swear Luce. You gotta stop doing that."
A charming giggle that placated my annoyance was all I got in response. As usual when dealing with one Lucia Pike.
Regardless, I was less annoyed than I would be when asked the question because of this very day. For years, any and every time one learned of my skill set and future prospects, it seemed to be the first question asked. And the only question cared about.
"What oath will you make?"
I groaned as Mack asked the question for a final time. Or rather, for the final time before the question changed to, 'What oath did you make?'
"It's a question that I'll ask out of curiosity alone. Should you not want to," Mack said. "You don't have to share."
He was a man trapped in his youth, Mack. He appeared much younger than his experience suggested. And even then, he acted younger still. In that way, he was a bit like Amun. Or at least, I was reminded of Amun during his instructions. But, where Amun was a wise man in a child's body, Mack was just a child with battle experience trapped in a man's body.
A potentially dangerous combination.
"I'm taking the Oath of the Valkyrie," Lucia nonchalantly explained.
"Wow." Mack reeled on his heels. "I mean, we've all seen you dress the part. But actually being able to take the Oath is another thing."
"It's sort of like a family tradition." She shrugged. "Blade Magic. Should we have a deity to work for, that is."
Mack followed her gaze up to the worlds floating high above but said nothing. At least until Issac Galliard stepped forth.
"Likewise, I am to take the Oath of the Shield like my forefathers."
"I'm sure you'll make them proud." Mack smiled weakly. Weaker than his compliment, even.
"I am the knight of a ranger." Quinn Leonhard muttered afterward. "A Settler, he is. As such, I've thought long and hard about it. And I've decided to take the Oath of Liberation."
"An honorable choice." Mack nodded appropriately, then almost suddenly shifted his anxious eyes to me.
In truth, I knew what oath I wanted to take since we first spoke to Amun about our classes. And yet, I read through as many oaths in the Bodhi Tree's library as I could to try and get an idea of what the oath should even cover. And with it being a Prestige Class, one never before obtained, there was no way to just give him the name without it sounding misleading.
So, I just explained it in the easiest way I could.
"You'll see."
"Very well." He sighed in disappointment. "You all may go. But, Toril. If I may have a word with you."
"Sure." I sighed this time and sighed again once Luce walked away with a final flex of her hand around mine.
"Not to worry." Mack approached with raised hands shortly after. "I just wanted to give you some pointers on that weapon of yours. Do you know what it's made of?"
"Leiptr Steel." I nodded. "And gold. And adamantine."
"The steel," he cut me short. "What do you know of its properties?"
"It's heavy." I snorted. "Stores electricity well. Doesn't break under combustion."
"All true." He nodded. "But it is also known by the name, Metallic Lightning. One with the power of lightning like yourself can guide it."
Eyeing him suspiciously, I pulled Storm Thief from its sheathe and withdrew a little bit of energy from the stolen tempests within. A small amount, it was. And yet a surge of energy leaped out to the surroundings, forcing me to tame it before I dared let the weapon go.
"Huh." I laughed in dismay at my axe, covered in an electrical field that kept it positioned still in midair. "I've had this weapon for years and I've never done more than swing or throw it." I laughed again, making a gesture with my finger to send it crashing into the snow. Then back to my hand.
"Even so." Mack waved his way through the smoke. "It shouldn't be that powerful. How much energy is stored in there?"
"Yeah." I sighed distantly. I always felt it was a paradox of my character. That a child of the tempest from a land of perpetual winter would have a love for open skies and sunny days. That such love led me to steal any and every thunderstorm I came across. That such a habit would yield such concentrated power. That such power would combine with affinity cores of Gas, Combustion, and Weight to form unyielding strength. That was something I never considered.
I thought it to be a paradox. A flaw. A contradiction of my persona until I learned of the tempest I could become as Amun's knight.
"I'm about to find out." I returned a grin to Mack as I gripped the Storm Thief tightly. "And as thanks for the advice, I'll show you something interesting upon my return."
If Mack answered, it was after my ascension to the cloudless sky above.
It was after I released the energy of a thousand supercells stolen largely from the tempestuous storms of northern Maru, covering the Reservation in a whirlwind of violent winds and furious lightning.
The storm bloomed and spread by the second, darkening the skies in twelve provinces scattered between four countries and a mountain range. Tundras and mountains and forests alike bloomed in the light of a hundred simultaneous bolts, giving any present witnesses unbridled views of roots having their trees pried from the ground, boulders being upturned, and the city of Korlu, safe within the eye of the storm.
I allowed myself a moment of awe before I spread my focus over the storm of storms.
Like a force of nature, my will latched onto the Storm of Storms, tempering it before a lethal surge stormed through every cloud, water droplet, and electron.
With that killing blow, the Storm of Storms ceased its circular motion, dissipating into a cloud of thick mist and flickering sparks that were slowly fading into nothingness. But a final force of will, paired with a surge of energy sustained the Storm of Storms, even in death.
The lingering mist of that Storm of Storms obeyed the force of my will like a dog coming to its master, clearing the skies to allow the blue expanse to shine through once more; forming a planetary shell of sparking but still wind around my pebble of a body.
With power fueling my words, I raised my proud weapon to the heavens and declared. "This Tempest lives, dies, and lives on to serve the Eternal God, Amun; The Divine Realm of Eotrom; the Empire of Eotrom; and the Legio Noctis. This Tempest will be relentless and unyielding in your pursuits. In your direction, this Tempest follows, forever leading your Legions to smite the hearts of heretics who provide nutrients for the Culture you so hate, so they may become peaceful in undeath. Forever, this Tempest shall stand before the worthy living as a spear of our God's wrath, using the valiant dead as an impenetrable shield.
"With my mind, body, spirit, and soul, I, Toril O'Connell, Storm Thief, swear upon this oath: the Oath of the Undying Tempest!"
I made my declaration with the voice of thunder itself, bringing about a second, immensely stronger will to take hold of the storm.
Gripped in a hand of seafoam green sparks, the field of sparking wind condensed into an infinitesimally small point centered on my axe before the tempest imploded in a multitude of colored flashes. Blue. Red. Seafoam green. Purple. Black. Silver and gold. The field blasted the surrounding air away at supersonic speeds before condensing by the hands of that overpowering will, this time into me. Filling my mind with the visage of an electrical reaper donned in the armor of a divine knight.
And then there was blue. Skies and clouds were all around me while a spike-handled axe sparked with energy before me. Changed. A great leafless tree was now embroidered on its head, studded with many enchantments, and imbued with rich power.
Before or after I grasped onto that spike-handled axe, I felt cold for the first time in my life. My lightning. My spirit itself grew colder than the Plane of Shadows as those familiar words of mana formed in my field of view. Informing me of what I already knew. Of my new nature. Of my new abilities.
Like Luce, I returned to Mack as a different being entirely.
No longer a mortal was Lucia Pike, but a Celestial. The Eternal Champion's Queen Valkyrie.
No longer was I, Toril O'Connell, a mortal, but a proxy of Amun. A Demigod. The first of us future Imperators.
A demigod only because of the divine power bestowed upon me by Amun. More power than would have been granted from my oath. Power that he willingly loaned to me and power that he could rescind at any time. A power that was already split between his clergy, his clerics, and his tenure in creating. Yet, due to his connection with the creator, he had more to spare.
If there were any changes to our appearance, it stole the words from his mouth. As did whatever power leaking from our frames left his lower jaw dangling. Even while the four of us entered the stables to carve magic circles into the stone tiles, he stared and only moved once the portals began opening.
Issac. Quinn. Lucia. Me. Four portals opened before each of us, appearing one after another to bleed otherworldly energy into the crisp air, breaking the silence with echoing screeches and neighs.
From Issac's portal appeared a sharp talon that was nearly as large as he was. A plumed leg of vibrant blue and white feathers followed, trailed by another leg before a bowed chest of similarly covered feathers puffed out and compressed to emit powerful squawks to bleed through the rift. I began to look away just when the head appeared, giving me a late reaction to the deathly presence.
It by all rights looked like a colorful bird. Except of course the animated deer skull that seemed to replace its face. It even had the massive fucking horns, entangled with equal brambles and flowers.
A telltale screech came from Quinn's portal next, making him approach it anxiously and even beam wide once a pair of talons came stepping out. The wide eyes and curved beak of an eagle followed, making me believe Amun got him a mount as well. Until I saw the hind quarters, hoofed like that of a horse.
"A Hippogriff." Mack finally managed to say from his post in the riding pen. "And that there is a Peryton." He told Issac. "From the way it feels. Both appear to be Fae. Which summoned mounts usually are."
Just like before, anxious eyes fell on me and my portal. But they soon began flickering towards Lucia's. As did everyone else's. Including mine. For her portal was the only one to emit the neighs of a horse. And, being a Valkyrie, we all more or less hoped to see one creature in particular.
Horns may as well have been playing when it stepped through, for it was that glorious. Its coat of fur and feathers seemed white but reflected silvery blue and gold as its ropy muscles shifted and bulged under the graceful sway of its motions. Like a savvy dog, it approached Lucia with reins clutched in its teeth. Almost as if were desperate for her to ride, it nudged into her awed being impatiently until she took the reigns and climbed upon her saddle.
Watching that Pegasus take flight, I nearly forgot about my portal entirely. It remained in the back of my mind for moments until a telltale crack of electricity pulled at my ear.
There were no talons or plumed legs stepping from my portal. Only the perpetual tempest of my world in Eotrom sat beyond that threshold of energy. But somewhere out there, I knew my boy was out there. Alone and eagerly waiting for my call.
I wouldn't keep him waiting.
"Thor!"
He arrived with not a step or screech but with a crash of lightning and thunder that zipped across the stables, passing dangerously close to Quinn's hippogriff before I called him to me in a flash of glory.
A beak of cobalt blue opened and closed excitedly as I beamed at Thor, admiring and scratching the snow-white feathers surrounding his head. "They are not food," I told him, receiving a scratch of a cobalt-blue talon across the ground in response.
In return, I growled, poking my finger into his hide as a warning. "Not even the hippogriff, Thor. You have plenty of horses to eat. If you are good…" I sighed. "I'll… I may find a way to get some hippogriffs for you to eat. In time."
A crackling field of electrical energy danced across his midnight-blue feathers and fur in reluctant agreement.
"Good boy." A firm pat sealed the deal, giving me leeway to check Thor's saddle and mount him. And only then did I turn to Mack's awed expression. "Ah, yes. This is Thor." I declared, rearing the great creature onto his hind legs before they came crashing down like thunder. "My Tempest Griffon."