"I Am She Who Strides with Heroes and Slays Gods"

[Azuloth]

The throne room of Castle Fordeth was a large rectagonal room with two wings that could be opened and closed to limit or increase the amount of space available. The floors were a shade of mirrored gold, and the walls were the pale tan stone that was ubiquitous throughout the castle. The high walls of the room gave way eventually to stained glass windows that were a lie. Each of the images was a truth within a lie, but they wouldn't be seen by those that would ever enter the room. Only one had laid eyes on the glass and only one did see that truth.

That person was not Julgrava, nor was it the only other person in the room.

Behind the throne of humanity was another throne, a throne made from hydrillium. The Justean throne.

There had been two such thrones. One here in Fordeth, the other in Helkorth. This one remained toppled behind the throne of domination. Upon which Julgrava sat.

The other had gone missing to the public.

Julgrava was sitting alone in the throne room, light filtering down through the stained glass windows creating a rainbow of color. But he sensed the other invisible presence.

"I know you're in here. I can see you. I see your thoughts, your mind. You're here to kill me aren't you?"

[Azuloth]

The air was silent for a moment.

"Afraid of what you can't see, oh King of Humanity?" The voice said. It reverberated off the walls. The stone shook, the glass shook. All of it threatening to break. The voice was booming yet a whisper. Commanding and triumphant. The voice cackled and laughed at the king on the throne.

"You dare mock me?" Julgrava said in actual surprise.

"I challenge you!" The voice laughed jovially.

"Then show yourself, fool, and be made waste before me! I AM THE DESTROYER!"

Julgrava shot up out of the throne and started towards the door. The voice laughed harder at him.

"I am naked and bare before you! Can you not lay your eyes on me? Did you not claim to see me just moments ago? Or are you a liar, a farce?"

"Nothing escapes me."

"They all escape you fool. I see you for what you are. And yet I stay obvious all around you, every day and night. Every waking hour I stand bare for you to witness. In the streets and in the fields. Down where the people are, smothered and broken. I am all around you."

"You are no god. A god would show me something. A perception to grasp, as gods are beyond visible comprehension."

"A lie. You do not see me because you can not fathom me. I will give you three guesses to discover my identity. If you can not, then I will mark you doomed."

"I accept your challenge."

"Three chances."

Julgrava sat there hard on the chair. He cooled his mind, and emptied it so that he could better perceive the supposed being in front of him. The one that was supposed to be present all around him, every day. He could not think of a single thing that encompassed that. Even the Gods had a place in the heavens and hells. Even they had a domain. Yet this one claimed no domain.

"You are Power. Everything is your domain, as only you are responsible for creation itself."

"False. You know nothing, Stealer of Names. Two chances."

More laughter.

"Wisdom. In your timeless existence your wisdom outstrips mine, and you are able to by some means unknown to even me remain undetected."

"If I were undetected you would not hear me. You would not feel my presence in the back of your mind. I terrify you. The prospect that I exist for you makes you fearful. One chance more."

"Bah. Nothing scares me. I am The Forgotten One. Nothing can destroy me. You are Justice, seeking to avenge those that I have wronged."

"If I were Justice would I not use humankind, those that were made for exacting Justice by your so loved gods, to bring about justice on your reign? You've failed to name me. By the terms of the challenge I mark you doomed."

"Fine! Doomed I may be but to what you did not specify! Now name yourself!"

More laughter still. Julgrava was standing again, his body shaking with rage. How could he fail? What did he overlook?

"I am. I am what I am. I am she who strides with heroes and slays gods. I am Entropy. I am Kindness. I am eternal embrace. I am love. I am the hero that made the first heroes. I am the cycle, and I am the destruction of cycles. I am He who Devours. I am the inevitable. I am the eldest."

Fear creeped up Julgrava's back. Raw, unhinged, fear.

"That's right."

"Impossible."

"You knew me all along. Yet you and your gods aplenty reject me. They say 'No, that can not be our fate'. And in their hubris they decide that I am unnecessary."

"No... You have no will!"

"How does it go... what did they used to say, the first humans. Ah, right. Thus: it is the ancient beast. We knew its hunger from the first day."

Then the presence was gone, and Julgrava was alone in silence. Sobbing on the floor, on his knees.

[Azuloth]

In his despair he missed the sounds of fighting in the halls just outside the throne room. Then he missed the quiet that came after. A lithe figure clad in black and silver and red, holding a blood slaked curved faded yellow blade, with long black hair, pale skin and grey eyes pushed through the large double doors into the room. She found him kneeling there, adrift in sorrow.

"Julgrava! I am Ardath Foresworn, and death comes for you!"



He didn't even move. She walked right up to him with sword in her hand ready to lay into him with the weapon. It was like she wasn't even there. She tapped him with the sword, frustrated by what was in front of her.

Truthfully she did not expect to say the whole sentence. It sounded stupid now that she had. This sniveling fool in front of her was a disappointment of the highest order. She wanted to fight him. Not just stab him and go home. Would that work? No, her conscience and fighting spirit wouldn't allow it. It was him at his full strength or not at all.

Ardath huffed and went over to the throne. Then spotted the one behind it. The one in the front was prettier, and clearly has been used recently. There was a pillow, some goblets strewn about it, a still lit brazier. But the one behind it. Something about that one spoke to her. It felt more important despite the fact that it needed a very thorough cleaning.

"Remember me, Oh King of Humanity. I am Ardath Foresworn, True Knight of Cruinthe."

The woman said this as she passed by him again, leaving him there alone.