paranoianovel The Wizard-King's Legacy
The Wizard-King's Legacy
The Wizard-King's Legacy
It had come from beyond time.
Without sight, light mattered not. Without touch, matter was nothing. Adrift in an infinite void, the weight of eons passed while it dozed.
Until it learned to feel by way of captivity.
The Wizard-King Gergorix had risen in the north of Garumna, plundering the secrets of the earth and crafting them into spells that made demon lords shudder. He found it within the astral world, and named it That Which Hungers to give it being.
On his edict, thousands fell beneath the sacrificial knife; feeding rituals that bound That Which Hungers within a stone of gold, marble and jade, encrusted in jewels the size of fingernails. And so, its gilded cage came to be.
The Egg of Gergorix was born.
That Which Hungers raged within its prison - straining the binding spells to their limits - but Gergorix had not only great might, but terrible cunning. He introduced it to sensation. To feeling, matter and thought; things completely alien to it. Clinging to them like a prisoner to their bread, it quickly grew addicted, and so became slave to its own desire. And to the master that controlled it.
Pacified, it offered its fell power to the Wizard-King in full, and he drew from it a magic so dreadful that it rocked the skies and painted the lands with lightning. It shattered mountains and drove the bejewelled lords of the earth into the dark like rats.
A strange smile took his masters lips. Perhaps. Perhaps you shall.
The vault door of Gergorixs barrow groaned.
Crack!
A terrific force dragged it open.
Moonlight poured into the tomb, shimmering across its dust-encrusted treasures. A hulking figure loomed in the entryway, an obscenity too large and twisted to be human. It regarded the shining treasures with a flat gaze and stooped to crawl within; the mastodon hides wrapping its frame leaving a rancid grease upon the stones. Horns jutting from its skull scraped the ceiling and stone dust rained down, but it gave no heed.
Hands the size of shields explored brutishly, disturbing ancient treasures as though they were mere river stones and strewing about the skeletons of the Wizard-Kings mighty guard. They clattered as they fell, scattering bone and bronze armour long encrusted in verdigris, and the ancient dust that arose caused a great sneeze to rock the creature. It sounded like a catapult stone hitting a fortress wall. When its head rose, its eyes widened. A crowned skeleton sat upon a marble throne and in its grip lay an egg of gold, marble and jade, encrusted with shining jewels the size of human fingernails. The hulking figure was enraptured, and its hand shot out with careless greed, dashing the great kings bones to the floor like trash.
It grinned - revealing dripping fangs framed by upward jutting tusks - and its fetid breath misted in the cool, damp air. Using twine of mastodon fur, it tied the shining egg and bound it about its neck. With a rumble of satisfaction, the ogress crawled from the chamber, leaving behind untold treasures to the elements.
And so, the Egg of Gergorix entered the world once more.
Though not in the way many expected.