The Gods of the Sixth Age

Erika had found her time adventuring with Kruin to be…humbling. That wasn’t a word Erika had been familiar with before. Being born a fey creature placed you above most creatures anyway simply by virtue of what you were and being a fey princess, well now you were above basically all other fey creatures too. There was never cause to be humble.

But then she’d started travelling into Rappun Athuck and it quickly became clear that none of her inborn advantages were worth a dried liver badger treat. Trickery of her kind just wasn’t up to the task of defeating such dangerous creatures as were found down there, wasn’t even much good for distracting them enough to allow the fully fledged members of Great Downwards to deal with them (which, when she was being honest with herself, was the best she’d really hoped for).

Then came the fight with Scramge. She saw what truly powerful illusions could do and was slain by them. While Kruin never said anything about it, Erika knew that they must have had to humiliate and debase themselves to that egomaniacal whiskered freak. Erika’s powers weren’t a boon to the Company, they were a hindrance, and so she left them. 

For a few months she helped on the glass island. It was valuable work to be sure, but not like the life she built up to expect for herself, the life of an adventurer. And as the strange shapes in the sky began to grow, she became more and more frustrated. What good what restoring an island if potentially this whole world was going to be laid to waste? But what could she do? Humbly, she had no choice but to leave it to others and hope they’d get the job done.

*****

Kruin’s reaction was unusual for her, as much as anything Kruin did could be considered any more unusual than any other thing. The story of Macry, a hero who had fought too hard for her cause, and too well, and had thus been banished along with a group of foul monsters to some timeless prison, weighed hard on Erika’s friend. “What can we do for her? She didn’t deserve this, not really…” Kruin kept saying. “She was a mighty hero, now this…”

“To all but the Company she never stopped being a mighty hero.” Erika put in. “Well yah, but that’s not real, is just what people think, just like a trick…” “But, I guess in the world of gods and all that stuff, the difference between a trick and the truth isn’t as clear as it is down here,” Erika returned, the ideas just forming in her head as she spoke them “If enough people believe something here, it becomes true up there.” “Since when did you know about this stuff?”  “I’m a wizard now, remember,” continued Erika “Reading is…it’s what we do.” She felt a touch of shame at this, reading was really doing, it was just hearing about other things being done.

Kruin didn’t seem happy with that conclusion, but there was little sense taking the conversation further. Kruin had big things to worry about, a fight against an avatar to prepare for, and she wasn’t good at preparing at the best of times. But Erika, as had been shown, didn’t have better things to do. She had no role in fighting a god. But maybe she had a role in the opposite. If enough people believed Macry to be a mighty hero, and enough more joined in that belief, maybe the hero that Macry was would be reborn as a god, the villain she had become transforming into a greater being of hope and valiance. Maybe if enough people started to believe.

********

This idea stewed in Erika’s head in the weeks after the fight with Macry. She dropped the subtle hint here and there where she could, fake trickles of blood rising up from swords whilst guards were practicing and such, but she knew the real work would come after the Company had finished. People would be looking for new things to believe in whatever changed world they found themselves in.

It wasn’t until the night before Kruin and the other were about to embark on their final fight that Erika realized she might be on the wrong track. Foil always amused her and she’d been wanting a rematch of her previous race with his pigeon companion (she knew the bird had cheated in the last one somehow) and headed up to the roof of the Fallen Sword to find them, but there she found Kingsley and Shades too. Sensing this was a somber moment she stayed back, and learned from their discussion, to her horror, the true nature of what they were planning.

Erika immediately realized she had the wrong target. If anyone deserved ascension it was Kingsley, and given that she’d have already been a god by the time thing were ‘resolved’ she might be an easier target. Come to think of it, there was still going to be a chunk of star stone, so perhaps one of the others from the Company could also be helped to ascend if they fell.

In minutes Erika rewrote her plan. She’d travel with the refugees to the plane of air – having another flyer on hand would be very handy there whatever happened – and she’d work from there with whatever was left of the people of this world. She’d start slowly, produce some very minor ‘miracles’ here and there, just to let people know that there was something watching over them. Over time she’d grow as far as her illusions could get away with, but it wouldn’t all be about illusions anyway. Even if they failed tomorrow, Kingsley and the Company would have saved these people from some kind of worse fate anyway, delayed the destruction of their world and created a path to freedom for a lucky few, so they truly would be their saviors anyway, and enough people would know that without any tricks. Hopefully someone would emerge with the last bit of the star stone, but either way, people’s beliefs would be strong.

No one knew what the sixth age would involve, but if Erika had her way it’s gods would be Kingsley and The Great Downwards Engineering Company.