Versus the Rake Men (part 2)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 16th bell
I lightly shove the book away with a frustrated sigh.
"So that's three sources that contradict each other. I know record-keeping went to pot after Hordak invaded, but I don't understand how these people can't agree about simple factual matters!"
Evelyn -who is sitting on the edge of the table, bare right thigh facing me- pulls the book across to her and closes it, running her right forefinger over the front piece with a pale golden glow.
"It's not contemporary. 'Records of Desolation' is a glorified collection of folk tales woven into a narrative a century after the events it alleges to describe. You'd be better off trusting either of the other works." She looks away. "Not that either of them had any direct contact with him."
"Do you know anywhere better to-?"
She tilts her head back, making a show of looking at the ceiling.
"What do you think Nolar would do if I appeared at the festival in disguise?"
"Ah-. The terms of your parole aren't widely known, so I imagine that if he recognised you he'd try to let Sir Duncan know. And possibly try to follow you so he could foil whatever your evil plan was."
She looks down at me, left eyebrow arched. "I think that you're overestimating his rationality."
"Perhaps, but you did try and burn him to death. That sort of thing can overpower even the strongest ardour. But if we could return to the matter of Hordak?"
"Did you know that I was there when he turned Keldor into Skeletor?"
I sit back in my chair, giving her my full attention. "No, I didn't. I always assumed that Keldor managed that himself."
"Hardly."
"With a little help from yourself?"
"I just brought him to Hordak's temple. Ske-. Keldor, performed the summoning himself."
I raise my eyebrows. "Hordak physically manifested? I didn't think he could do that."
"There was a cloud of smoke in the shape of his face." She turns a couple of pages in The Codex of the End Times, stopping on an artist's impression of Hordak's face supposedly copied from a pre-invasion hologram. "Something like that. He's the reason why Keldor wasn't killed by his own acid."
"Why his head is a floating skull."
"He just asked Hordak to save him. He never said how. Perhaps Hordak didn't like his face."
I frown. "Is his.. head actually a skull, or is his flesh just transparent?"
"It's actually a skull. His skin is cold to the touch and his flesh is shrunken. I believe that he's some sort of undead creature now, though I've never seen any record of something similar."
"Are you having regrets?"
"What, about saving Keldor? Or not asking Hordak to do the same to me?"
"About Mister Blok."
She raises her eyebrows. "I regret not winning. Does that count?"
"You brought him up. Know anything else about Hordak that I'm not going to find here?"
"Did you know that Prince Adam had a tw-?"
"Twin sister, yes, I did."
She frowns. "They told you? I thought they were keeping that-." Her eyes narrow slightly. "No. You found out. How?"
"Not all these books are particularly reliable. But I've seen enough pictures to know roughly what henchmen Hordak was banished with. If people matching that description turn up after fighting the Eternos guard in the modern era, that's worth noting. I take it that you were involved in that?"
"I took part in the ritual used to bring them here. I was left holding the gateway open until they returned." Her nose wrinkles. "An unpleasant experience."
I frown. "If Hordak can send soldiers through from his side whenever he wants, why doesn't he do it more often?"
"How would he maintain control of them? Skeletor ensures-. Ensured, that we were forced to compete for his favour and for the resources we wanted. That required us to stay put. If any of us were away from Snake Mountain for any length of time, we would build up our own resource base and so become less dependent on him. Personal loyalty is a fragile thing."
"So what were you in it for? He used the Ram Stone himself after you stole it for him. There's no way he would have shared the power of Grayskull with you."
"What are you in it for? If Hordak accepted Keldor as his servant he would be perfectly happy to accept you."
A reasonable enough question. And at this point I'd guess that she's sufficiently invested that she's not just looking for an escape route.
"There's a book series where I'm from, set in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork. The city's ruler is a man named Havelock Vetinari, and the book describes one of the way he holds onto power as… Convincing powerful groups within the city that it's better to accept the same segment of a larger pie than try to claim the whole of a smaller pie with a knife in it. If he makes the city more powerful, then even if their power relative to other power blocs inside the city doesn't change, their absolute power does."
She nods. "A tenth of ten is one, but a tenth of a million is a hundred thousand."
"Right. When I joined, the Masters were the military elite of the city-state of Eternos. Now, we're the military elite of a continent-spanning alliance that Eternos leads. And if things keep going, with Keldor and King Hiss out of the way… Why not the whole of Eternia? Heck, as far as I've been able to discover-" I gesture to a small pile of books on the far side of the table. "-Eternia had a unified government before Hordak invaded."
"Your renown will be worldwide. But what would you do with it?"
"Hordak wrecked Eternia's technology base so badly that advanced machines are ancient relics that we can't replace and only a handful of people like Tri-Klops, Sortech or Sir Duncan can even begin to understand it."
She frowns in irritation. "Every single time we've spoken, you've called me Evelyn, and yet you call Tri-Klops by his preferred name. Why?"
"Because I have no idea what his name is. We have records of your father, and Kronis dealt in high tech weapons in Eternos's territory for years, but Tri-Klops..? No record until he appeared with Keldor."
"I suppose you can't have scoured every inch of Eternia for one man's name. Though for your reference, it's Trydor, and I'm still waiting to hear what you'd do with your fame."
"Rebuild the civilisation that Hordak destroyed. Make it so that the technology of your ancestors was commonplace again. Because the stronger Eternia is, the more secure I am. What matters to me is how good my life is; I don't care if other people have a life that's just as good. Surviving examples of the technology of that era are rare, and people hoard rare things. But if I'm trusted…"
I make a point of looking around the library, gesturing to it with my right hand.
"They will give you access, as the Sorceress did." She considers this for a moment. "Hmm. Not so different from my own plans, to tell the truth. I planned to follow Keldor's rise to the top."
"Keldor would never trust you with the power Teela Na has entrusted to me. Not even if he ruled the entire planet and had every artefact of arcane significance stuck in his backpack. And as powerful as he was, I'm not convinced that he has anything like the knowledge required to become more than the king of the molehill. And even if he did, if Hordak's still pulling his strings? Hordak's going to have his own inner circle that you wouldn't be a part of."
"True." She looks down at the glowing lettering on her right thigh. Her toned and muscular right thigh. "Despite the indignity, in the long run this may be the best thing that could have happened to me. And if you're being so noble about the command geas, there's no reason why you could not return tom-."
DOOOOOOONG!
Season of Chill
307th day, 16th bell
I lightly shove the book away with a frustrated sigh.
"So that's three sources that contradict each other. I know record-keeping went to pot after Hordak invaded, but I don't understand how these people can't agree about simple factual matters!"
Evelyn -who is sitting on the edge of the table, bare right thigh facing me- pulls the book across to her and closes it, running her right forefinger over the front piece with a pale golden glow.
"It's not contemporary. 'Records of Desolation' is a glorified collection of folk tales woven into a narrative a century after the events it alleges to describe. You'd be better off trusting either of the other works." She looks away. "Not that either of them had any direct contact with him."
"Do you know anywhere better to-?"
She tilts her head back, making a show of looking at the ceiling.
"What do you think Nolar would do if I appeared at the festival in disguise?"
"Ah-. The terms of your parole aren't widely known, so I imagine that if he recognised you he'd try to let Sir Duncan know. And possibly try to follow you so he could foil whatever your evil plan was."
She looks down at me, left eyebrow arched. "I think that you're overestimating his rationality."
"Perhaps, but you did try and burn him to death. That sort of thing can overpower even the strongest ardour. But if we could return to the matter of Hordak?"
"Did you know that I was there when he turned Keldor into Skeletor?"
I sit back in my chair, giving her my full attention. "No, I didn't. I always assumed that Keldor managed that himself."
"Hardly."
"With a little help from yourself?"
"I just brought him to Hordak's temple. Ske-. Keldor, performed the summoning himself."
I raise my eyebrows. "Hordak physically manifested? I didn't think he could do that."
"There was a cloud of smoke in the shape of his face." She turns a couple of pages in The Codex of the End Times, stopping on an artist's impression of Hordak's face supposedly copied from a pre-invasion hologram. "Something like that. He's the reason why Keldor wasn't killed by his own acid."
"Why his head is a floating skull."
"He just asked Hordak to save him. He never said how. Perhaps Hordak didn't like his face."
I frown. "Is his.. head actually a skull, or is his flesh just transparent?"
"It's actually a skull. His skin is cold to the touch and his flesh is shrunken. I believe that he's some sort of undead creature now, though I've never seen any record of something similar."
"Are you having regrets?"
"What, about saving Keldor? Or not asking Hordak to do the same to me?"
"About Mister Blok."
She raises her eyebrows. "I regret not winning. Does that count?"
"You brought him up. Know anything else about Hordak that I'm not going to find here?"
"Did you know that Prince Adam had a tw-?"
"Twin sister, yes, I did."
She frowns. "They told you? I thought they were keeping that-." Her eyes narrow slightly. "No. You found out. How?"
"Not all these books are particularly reliable. But I've seen enough pictures to know roughly what henchmen Hordak was banished with. If people matching that description turn up after fighting the Eternos guard in the modern era, that's worth noting. I take it that you were involved in that?"
"I took part in the ritual used to bring them here. I was left holding the gateway open until they returned." Her nose wrinkles. "An unpleasant experience."
I frown. "If Hordak can send soldiers through from his side whenever he wants, why doesn't he do it more often?"
"How would he maintain control of them? Skeletor ensures-. Ensured, that we were forced to compete for his favour and for the resources we wanted. That required us to stay put. If any of us were away from Snake Mountain for any length of time, we would build up our own resource base and so become less dependent on him. Personal loyalty is a fragile thing."
"So what were you in it for? He used the Ram Stone himself after you stole it for him. There's no way he would have shared the power of Grayskull with you."
"What are you in it for? If Hordak accepted Keldor as his servant he would be perfectly happy to accept you."
A reasonable enough question. And at this point I'd guess that she's sufficiently invested that she's not just looking for an escape route.
"There's a book series where I'm from, set in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork. The city's ruler is a man named Havelock Vetinari, and the book describes one of the way he holds onto power as… Convincing powerful groups within the city that it's better to accept the same segment of a larger pie than try to claim the whole of a smaller pie with a knife in it. If he makes the city more powerful, then even if their power relative to other power blocs inside the city doesn't change, their absolute power does."
She nods. "A tenth of ten is one, but a tenth of a million is a hundred thousand."
"Right. When I joined, the Masters were the military elite of the city-state of Eternos. Now, we're the military elite of a continent-spanning alliance that Eternos leads. And if things keep going, with Keldor and King Hiss out of the way… Why not the whole of Eternia? Heck, as far as I've been able to discover-" I gesture to a small pile of books on the far side of the table. "-Eternia had a unified government before Hordak invaded."
"Your renown will be worldwide. But what would you do with it?"
"Hordak wrecked Eternia's technology base so badly that advanced machines are ancient relics that we can't replace and only a handful of people like Tri-Klops, Sortech or Sir Duncan can even begin to understand it."
She frowns in irritation. "Every single time we've spoken, you've called me Evelyn, and yet you call Tri-Klops by his preferred name. Why?"
"Because I have no idea what his name is. We have records of your father, and Kronis dealt in high tech weapons in Eternos's territory for years, but Tri-Klops..? No record until he appeared with Keldor."
"I suppose you can't have scoured every inch of Eternia for one man's name. Though for your reference, it's Trydor, and I'm still waiting to hear what you'd do with your fame."
"Rebuild the civilisation that Hordak destroyed. Make it so that the technology of your ancestors was commonplace again. Because the stronger Eternia is, the more secure I am. What matters to me is how good my life is; I don't care if other people have a life that's just as good. Surviving examples of the technology of that era are rare, and people hoard rare things. But if I'm trusted…"
I make a point of looking around the library, gesturing to it with my right hand.
"They will give you access, as the Sorceress did." She considers this for a moment. "Hmm. Not so different from my own plans, to tell the truth. I planned to follow Keldor's rise to the top."
"Keldor would never trust you with the power Teela Na has entrusted to me. Not even if he ruled the entire planet and had every artefact of arcane significance stuck in his backpack. And as powerful as he was, I'm not convinced that he has anything like the knowledge required to become more than the king of the molehill. And even if he did, if Hordak's still pulling his strings? Hordak's going to have his own inner circle that you wouldn't be a part of."
"True." She looks down at the glowing lettering on her right thigh. Her toned and muscular right thigh. "Despite the indignity, in the long run this may be the best thing that could have happened to me. And if you're being so noble about the command geas, there's no reason why you could not return tom-."
DOOOOOOONG!
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Imagine the childhood bullying.
