Everyone laughed for a good minute, annoying Oyed. He even went so far as to put his fingers in his ears. The laughter soon died down as everyone picked themselves up. Their sides were hurting from laughing so much and tears fell down their face. \u201cBy the Ones,\u201d panted a guard, \u201cI never laughed so hard since the Trinnies killed my wives, harem, and children!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you finished?\u201d asked Oyed as he unplugged his ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026You\u2019re serious, aren\u2019t you?!\u201d realized Arsha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDeathly serious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll right, buster, riddle me this: why should we help you?! You\u2019re Oyed the Destroyer! The title alone tells us what you do for funsies! Why should we do ANYTHING for you?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll help me because doing so will give you a weapon against Dr. Borg and her Councilors should they rise to godhood!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCaptain, a word,\u201d called another guard. Everyone gathered around the guard, and they whispered to each other. Oyed could see Arsha\u2019s tails and ears droop. She turned back to the cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFine, we\u2019ll help out,\u201d she muttered. \u201cWhat needs to be done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe weapon I speak of is known as the Talkwen Stone,\u201d explained Oyed. \u201cIt was designed to drain Divine Mana through magical means. I never expected Dr. Borg to make a technological version of it (shows how much I underestimated her), but her research said that anyone with Divine Mana could be drained through her machine, meaning that the Council would be vulnerable to it as well. It took her the entire war, possibly before that, to construct the original machine and you lot don\u2019t have the time to make one for yourselves. Mortals can touch it with no problems at all, but I couldn\u2019t, and neither could my children when we were gods. No matter how much I tried, I couldn\u2019t get it to discern between my own Divine Mana and your precious Divine Ones. So I tossed it away\u2026until a certain someone picked it up, then set it into a crown later in his life. I believe there\u2019s a city named after that certain someone, right here in the Under-realm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Crelima?\u201d asked Arsha<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe first Vampire King himself!\u201d confirmed Oyed. \u201cWhen he ruled the Eastern Continent\u2019s night and constructed Crelima City to his original design, he listened to my whispers. He was the first of my thralls\u2026and the first to betray me! It DID cost him his life, though. At my behest, I ordered him to construct a crypt that only my immortal body could go through. He ordered all sorts of traps to be built; bladed pendulums, poison gas, spears shot out of the wall, spiked pits, acid, flame jets, the works! For reasons that escaped me completely, he ordered the crypt to be constructed from the center to outwards, then he set the traps from the outside to the center. In the central chamber, there was a window with a curtain. I always found it odd at the time\u2026until he finished the traps. I don\u2019t know if you know this, but there\u2019s no way to tell time in the Depths. Well, there was no way for me to tell what time it was when Crelima finished setting all the traps. He looked around the central chamber to admire the handiwork. He then muttered that it would serve. I told him to leave the crypt\u2026but he said no.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat must have ticked you off to no end,\u201d chuckled Arsha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh, I was LIVID! You see, I needed him to tell his family about the use of the Talkwen Stone, but he intended to stay there for the rest of his life, and it was cut short by his own actions. You see, by the time he finished his labors, the sun was already in the sky. He told me that the weapon would be forever lost to time, then he threw back the curtain and allowed the sun to enter the chamber, and you know what happened to Vampires of that time when they are bathed in sunlight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey turned to ash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what happened to King Crelima. There the Talkwen Stone sits, embedded in the first symbol of office, the Crown of Eternal Night, in the ash that was the first Vampire King, Crelima the Mad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Crypt\u2019s been off limits since 900 FAU,\u201d Arsha muttered. She then started planning. \u201cMaybe if we can get permission from the Hanthuus, we could get access. They\u2019d understand the need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow are you going to get past the traps?\u201d asked Oyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, considering that you were involved in their creation-\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHold on, let me make sure I understand you. You think I\u2019m going to get you past the traps?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, given that time is against us-\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the miracle worker. So, work a miracle. I already told you of the Talkwen Stone\u2019s existence. That\u2019s all the help you\u2019re getting from me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not funny!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a joke. Arsha, you said that people like us were parents. Well, unlike my children, I ain\u2019t no whirligig parent. Sink or swim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOyed, you want this war to end as much as I do and-!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEnd? Oh, I see! Arsha Royana, this war is FAR too entertaining for me to want to end right now! There\u2019s only one path I see for you, and that\u2019s you trying desperately to use the Talkwen Stone! And you said that time is against you. Did someone in Realmfleet tell you to end the war or surrender your claim to the Mid-realm throne?\u201d Arsha said nothing. \u201c\u2026The silence speaks volumes! The war may end, but I WILL see you fail in SOME capacity! That\u2019s likely the only bit of happiness I\u2019ll get now that I\u2019m as mortal as you.\u201d Oyed then laid down on his bunk. \u201cTell me how it goes. I eagerly await the results.\u201d He then shut his eyes and started napping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCaptain, we can-!\u201d called a guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat won\u2019t be necessary,\u201d replied Arsha. \u201cI have a plan in mind, I just wish I didn\u2019t need to resort to such a barbarous method.\u201d She then whispered instructions to the guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone laughed for a good minute, annoying Oyed. He even went so far as to put his fingers in his ears. The laughter soon died down as everyone picked themselves up. Their sides were hurting from laughing so much and tears fell down their face. \u201cBy the Ones,\u201d panted a guard, \u201cI never laughed so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,238],"tags":[482],"class_list":["post-5289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-three-realms","category-the-three-realms-book-5-the-final-fight","tag-fantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5290,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289\/revisions\/5290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}