Three (The Godslayer Cycle Book 3) (2 page)

Scollhaven
                                 Township in Wildelands.  Avery's initial                                              base of control.

Surenport
                                 Capital of Carland.

Welshire
                                 Territory south of Carland, occupied by                                              city-states.

Wellington                              
Agricultural trade community, near the                                              eastern border of Carland.

Western Realms
                   Sealed society on another continent.

Wildelands
                                 An area of largely unsettled, heavily                                              forested, mountainous lands.

Wyrm's Fang Tavern
  Tavern formerly owned by Bracken                                              Hillfire (destroyed).

The Blades

First                           
The prime sword, mold for the Nine.  Wielder:                             Nathaniel Goodsmith.

Hal'bracken             
Mystical axe of Bracken, the God of Hillfire.                              Wielder: Bracken Hillfire.

One
                           
First of the Nine, power of imperception.                                            Wielder: Avery

Two
                           
Second of the Nine, power over liquids.  Wielder:                             Nathaniel Goodsmith.

Three
                           
Third of the Nine, power over time.  Wielder:                             Alisia.

Miscellaneous

Artices
                                  Varied texts of Pantheon faith.

Codex Imeretia                  
The scriptures of Imery.

First Men                                
Mythical group of people said to be the                                                first humans on Na'Ril.

Gull-Griffin (The)
                     Ship which Gravin attempted to mutiny.

Knights of Drae Elbus  
Hereditary guardsmen of the lost city of                                                Drae Elbus

Oraclice
                                  Parable depicting the consequences of                                                defying the Gods.

Rules of Divinity
                     1)  A deity must name him or herself                                                when asked. 

                                               2)  A God cannot take a mortal life.                                                 3) 
A God is always bound by his or her                                                word.

Nathaniel Goodsmith was an orphaned young man living in the secluded community of Oaken Wood.  His mother, Maribel, had been a faithful druidess of the Old Gods, known to some as the Pantheon, a group of nine Gods and Goddesses of duality. However, after his mother's brutal murder, Nathaniel himself has foregone belief in the Old Gods.

In this, Nathaniel is not alone.  For centuries, a new religion has aggressively sought to eliminate all belief in the Old Gods.  The New Order, as this new faith is known, consists of forty-eight new Gods – twenty-four Higher Powers and twenty-four Lower Powers – who have declared war upon the Gods of old, seeking to wipe belief in them from the face of Na'Ril.  And the Pantheon is powerless to fight back against this aggressive opponent, for they are bound by their covenants with mortals not to war with other Gods.

Bound by these restrictive rules, the Old Gods have all but vanished from the land.  But Malik, the God and Goddess of War and Peace, devised a plan to reverse this downward spiral.  With the assistance of Charith, God and Goddess of Life and Death, he has created nine magic swords, each empowered with the ability to slay a God.  Malik's plan had been to release the swords to the Pantheon's faithful for them to seek out and destroy the New Order Gods – thus preserving their own existence within the confines of the covenants.

However, one of the Pantheon decided that Malik's strategy was too dangerous and set out to redirect the swords towards another purpose.  Ensorceling the swords in prophecy, Dariel, God and Goddess of Truth and Deception, stole the swords and banished them into the mortal realm, concealed forever from the eyes of the Gods.

In an effort to try to regain control of the swords' purpose, the Pantheon created an avatar matrix – a hereditary power passed down through bloodlines of their faithful so that when the swords would one day be revealed, there would be an agent amongst the mortals who would keep the swords away from agents of the New Order.

Now the swords have begun to emerge.  In far-off Scollhaven, a town located in the heart of the Wildelands, a heretic named Avery has found the first sword,
One
, with its incredible power to have its wielder be unseen.  Though he initially intends to seek revenge, Avery instead uses the sword's magic to pass himself off as a new God of Vengeance to the people of the small township. 

In response to
One
's activation, t
he avatar matrix awoke, as well.  But to the Pantheon's chagrin, it has emerged within Nathaniel – who owes no loyalty to the Old Gods.  The plan to have a viable agent in the mortal realm quickly came unraveled as Nathaniel rejected their efforts to recruit him.  Nathaniel has a family – a wife, Mariebelle, and son, Geoffrey – and he has no interest in traveling on a quest to find the swords.  The Pantheon warns Nathaniel that there might be consequences brought on by the prophecy if he did not act, but the mortal man chooses to reject the Pantheon's request for aid.

Meanwhile, an agent of Imery, Goddess of Truth for the New Order, has taken notice of Nathaniel, and through her, so has her Goddess.  Lady Brea is a traveling priestess of Imery's who has inadvertently become charmed through Old God magic to be infatuated with Nathaniel.  Believing Nathaniel to be one of the Old Gods in hiding, Imery empowers her priestess with the power to see truth in all things, and sets her upon Nathaniel's trail.  It is a fruitless enterprise, but the Goddess of Truth has been alerted to something out of the ordinary masked from the eyes of the New Order. 

To make matters worse, Imery has also identified a disappearance of her faithful within the small town of Scollhaven.  Coupled with the mystery that is Nathaniel Goodsmith along with the attack on her devoted's faith, Imery is compelled to send Brea to Scollhaven to investigate.

The prophecy in the meantime was not to be denied.  Without warning, warriors proclaiming themselves to be servants of Imery attack and murder Mariabelle and kidnap Geoffrey, burning down the local tavern in the process.  Nathaniel had been away meeting with Airek, God and Goddess of Charity and Greed, who was attempting to sway the man to the Pantheon's cause.  Upon his return, Nathaniel is grief-stricken, but realizes that he must take up the Pantheon's cause after all, if he is ever to have a chance of finding his son.  Charith also offers him one other incentive – if he succeeds in slaying the New Order's Goddess of Death, the Pantheon could retrieve the soul of Nathaniel's wife and resurrect her.

The only clue Nathaniel has to follow is the sudden departure of Imery's priestess, Brea, and so with the aid of the tavern's proprietor, a life-long dwarven friend, Bracken Hillfire, Nathaniel sets off in pursuit of the Imery's agent.

Along the way, Malik reveals to Nathaniel that the nine swords actually had a predecessor –
First
.  Apparently, the nine swords were molded from
First
, and the original blade had been hidden away, waiting for the awakening of the Avatar to be used as a weapon to help in retrieving the other nine swords.  Malik's own deception in hiding
First
was uncovered by Dariel, but Malik does not immediately reveal this to Nathaniel. 

Instead, the God and Goddess of War and Peace reveals another aspect of the avatar matrix – embedded talents and abilities which need and time would activate within the Avatar.  Malik's own contribution to the matrix was an innate knowledge of how to wield any weapon, including the great swords themselves.

In Scollhaven, Avery has successfully converted the township to his new religion, having each resident brand themselves with the New Order's symbol for heresy, a four-horned symbol seared into the flesh of any outcast.  Avery however has made it into his holy symbol, and citizens have branded themselves to demonstrate their devotion to their new God.  Amongst his new faithful, Avery has also acquired a scholar, Hamil, to record his rise to divinity and a host of lovers to sate his suddenly virile urges, though none are so special to him as one maiden, the bartender's daughter, Viola.

Yet even as Avery basks in his newfound potency, images and ideas of the mythical Godslayer begin to prey upon his mind.  He reasons that the sword must have belonged to the Old Gods – and has even declared himself the progeny of Malik and Charith – but that no God would have relinquished such a sword unless they were dead.  Fearing the Godslayer of myth would emerge to slay him, the new God of Vengeance organizes a retreat from Scollhaven, taking along with him Hamil and Viola as companions.

Unaware that the target of her search has already left Scollhaven, Brea is confronted by the amorous advances of one of her two hired mercenaries and uses her magic to enfeeble him as a lesson.  Unfortunately, the magic of the spell is far more powerful than she had intended, and she reduces him to a permanent state of idiocy.  This inappropriate abuse of power causes a rift between her and those she has hired to protect her on the road, and she retreats to examine the repercussions of this misfired magic, using the excuse that she would seek out a dwarf whom Imery has detected following the trio.

While separated from her companions though, Brea is caught unawares by not only Bracken, but Nathaniel, as well.  Brea is at first exuberant to see Nathaniel, since she is still inexplicably drawn to the man, but when he rebukes her affection, a confrontation begins. 

Brea is startled to learn of Mariabelle's murder and Geoffrey's abduction, and is even more horrified to learn that the blame has been cast upon Imery and herself.  And yet, her own Goddess' odd behavior coupled with the strange misfire of clerical magic gifted to her by Imery further seeds doubt in Brea's mind as to whether Imery may indeed be manipulating everyone, including Brea herself.

Before this conflict can be resolved, Avery himself appears, having been drawn to the conflict by the mysterious warnings of his scribe, Hamil.  Revealing himself to Nathaniel, Brea and Bracken, he is horrified to learn that the tall man actually holds a sword nearly identical to his own, but even moreso by the sudden impulse to destroy the other sword.  Overcome by
One
, Avery attacks mercilessly, believing Nathaniel to be the mythical Godslayer come to destroy him.

Though fiercely fought, Avery ultimately loses the fight when Nathaniel severs the hand holding
One
from his arm.  Believing that his life would be next to be taken, the would-be-God flees in terror into the night.

Inexplicably, Avery's delusional wandering is brought to a halt when a voice directs him on how to heal his own wound.  Awaking from his delusions, he is amazed to find his wrist healed and Hamil at his side.  The scribe denies being the voice who helped Avery save his own life, instead insisting that he was summoned by Avery's need.  Avery accepts this, concluding that he had a hidden ally somewhere that clearly wanted him to survive.

Yet as the two set off to return to Avery's camp and to retrieve Viola, Hamil is revealed to be the New Order God, Ankor, God of Mischief.  Avery has indeed attracted a hidden ally, but the self-proclaimed God of Vengeance is oblivious to how close that ally actually is.

As Avery seeks to retreat with his disguised divine aid, Brea is asked to summon Imery to answer for the murder and abduction of Nathaniel's family.  Compelled by her own doubts, Brea agrees and calls upon her Goddess to answer her questions while Nathaniel stands by, hidden from view with
One
's power
.

Imery responds but is infuriated that her priestess would challenge her and lashes out at Brea irrationally.  Bracken steps forward to defend the priestess, but Imery's rage is not quelled.  Seeing no other alternative, Nathaniel strikes out with
One
, skewering the Goddess from behind.

Imery is inexplicably caught on the blade, unable to escape the power of the sword.  As the mortals look on, the Goddess suddenly becomes the center of a storm of duplicate selves.  The Goddess' infinite manifestations are drawn back into a singular form, as the Goddess herself is powerless to break free.  In the end, the Goddess' form bursts into countless white energy spheres that drift to the earth.

Brea rushes forward to try to capture the essence of her Goddess, but the energy passes through her hands, disappearing into the ground below. 

Finally, as the last of the substance that had been her Goddess fades from sight, Brea looks up at Nathaniel and calls him, “Godslayer.”  She then faints.

End  of  Book  1

In Scollhaven, the Witness is trapped in a miasma of conflicting visions - between what has always been destined to be and what is now.  While trying to reason out these contradicting destinies, he is visited by another demi-God, Dart - who has the power to transport herself anywhere.  After the Witness reveals his capacity to share knowledge, Dart decides he needs to be protected and teleports him away.

Nathaniel and Brea wake to find themselves in love, sharing each others' bodies while Avery is tied to a nearby tree.  But it turns out to all be an illusion created by one of the Nine godslayer swords - one that has not even woken yet!  “Avery” is revealed to be a disguised stranger who once discovered disappears, leaving Nathaniel and Brea with the lingering effects of the sword's magic.

The real Avery - dejected and seemingly powerless - encounters a stranger from the future named Martin.  Martin has
Three
, a sword able to send its user through time, and claims to have come to this point to forewarn Avery of things to come.  Martin insists that Avery must travel to a town called Levitz to keep the next sword,
Two
, from the Godslayer - then vanishes.

In the Celestial Realm, the Gods have felt the death of Imery, and members of the Pantheon begin to fight for advantage.  But the real champion of the day is Malik, who had created the swords, though few know that he has an additional sword,
First
, and none know of his actual plans for it.  Meanwhile, within the ranks of the New Order, Kelvor and Galentine call upon Ankor (secretly Avery's companion, Hamil) to assist them in looking into their sister's death - promising him Imery's seat of power for his assistance.

Meanwhile, a great storm falls upon the world, scattering mysterious dark stones to all corners of the world - Carland included.
[1]
  The Pantheon provides an explanation - that there was a rift in reality through which dark matter was falling - but assures Nathaniel and his companions that the incident was not related to the death of the Goddess.

As the storm begins, chance has it that a mutineer named Gravin was being cast overboard into the ocean for his crimes.  But none could have foreseen that he would be drawn underwater to the submerged godslayer sword,
Two
, which grants command over water and other liquids to its wielder.  Spared from certain death, Gravin goes ashore, heading for the town where his former ship,
The Gull-Griffin
, was headed for revenge.

Two
's awakening triggers Nathaniel's Avatar talents, cluing him in on both the sword's existence and its location.  But not before Brea learns that she still possesses her Goddess' magic, even after Imery has died - magic she uses to restore the mind of the man she had reduced to an idiot.  With the mystery of Brea's inexplicable magic still hanging over them and none trusting in the Patheon's explanation of the dark matter falling to Na'Ril, Nathaniel, Brea and Bracken decide to seek out the truth of the skyfall before going after
Two
.