He Who Watches All

Syndra awoke from her slumber to loud cheering outside. She sat up in her bed, waiting for consciousness to take over as she blinked a few times regaining her focus. For a moment, she thought the cheering may have been part of the dream, but then it struck her. Bard’s performance, beautiful, heart-piecing, and familiar. Her eyes widened, she jumped from her bed and rushed for the window.As she swung her window open and looked onto the town’s main square, at the center of it, on the edge of the fountain, stood her beloved. Kendel had his lute out, singing his thoughts out as he usually did, swaying to his own melody. “And a time can come! And all shall end! But we say no! We won’t bend”. His mellow voice and soft melodies always made the humans gaze at him in awe. 

Syndra leaned on the window sill, lost in the beautiful song, sung by her lover. Dreamy, sleepy, and now lost in thoughts and melody. His songs, as of late, have been focused on the upcoming catastrophe. The song ended, and the crowd cheered. Even more have gathered around him, including guards and the city’s duke. All, from rats to nobles enjoyed his performances. 

The performance went on for another couple of hours. As it ended, Syndra watched Kendel discussing something with the duke and city guard captain. Then he glanced up at the window of his room and smiled gently at Syndra before turning to leave with the duke and captain. Syndra watched her lover leave, not with a worried expression, but a curious one instead. A few hours later, he returned to a warm meal on the table and Syndra awaiting him. 

He sat at the table, his attention focused on the freshly cooked fish and boiled potatoes before him, after a brief moment, he shifted his focus to Syndra, who silently waited, knowing full well that her lover was not in the right state of mind. The time seemingly stopped, Syndra did not avert her gaze. Her expression was that of pure resolve. At last, Kendel spoke up – “there’s…” she interrupted him- “eat first, we’ll talk after”

He looked at the meal and nodded – “but of course. Thank you, love.” she smiled and waited for him to take the first bite, as was tradition to the elves. The man was to take the first bite of the meal. While tradition might not make much sense in the modern day, it dates back to times of hunt and gathers, when men would risk their lives sampling the meals first to make sure they were safe to consume. 

And so they ate, and the meal was great. Syndra gathered the dishes and cleaned up the table, brought a steaming hot cup of tea for Kendel and moved her chair closer to sit beside him. As she did so, she took his hand into hers and smiled wearily. “Your performance today was great, as ever!” He smiled, locking his gaze with hers. His white eyes, gorgeous as the moon, always made Syndra’s heart flutter. 

He took a sip of the tea and nodded – “The scholars made a discovery. A legend which states that a forbidden bond can bind the beast for a millennia!” Syndra’s expression slowly morphed into a smile as she listened attentively – “The scholars at the Druda should know more they said”. She gasped as she pulled back just a little – “Druda? Surely they’re not ask…” he interrupted her – “They are. I’m the only one here with a slight chance of making dark elves listen!” 

She shook her head – “Your father might be in syndicate but you’ve been disowned for not following their practices and traditions, wouldn’t they imprison you upon return?” he sighed and shrugged – “Well, they’ll kill anybody else who enters their territory.” A deafening silence followed his words, interrupted shortly after by a knock on their door. Syndra jumped up – “i..i’ll get it!” she rushed for the door, and without a moment’s hesitation, swung it wide open. 

For a moment she didn’t see anyone until at least she looked down and saw a short, strong-built man before her. He grinned – “yea yea dwarves are small! I know! I’m Broadbeard! Messenger from the northern mountains, here.. Uhh” he dug through his shoulder bag in search of the right scroll, pulled out a random round object with a piece of rope on it, handed it over to Syndra – “Hold this a second” he said as he continued digging through his bag.

At last, he took out a crumbled-up scroll with a northern mountain kingdom stamp on it and handed it over to her, holding his other hand out waiting for her to hand the strange round object back – “The scroll, not the bomb! You don’t want the bomb” Her gaze slowly turned to the round object as she suddenly dropped it – “YIKES!” she screamed. The dwarf dove for the falling bomb, catching it with both hands and grunting- “yea! Thanks! Goo’day to ya” 

The dwarf nodded respectfully at the elf and turned around to leave. Syndra returned to the table and placed the scroll down beside Kendel – “a message from the northern kingdom? And to you?” she said with visible curiosity. Kendel glanced at the crumbled-up scroll – “dwarves are fast to respond… We sent out a request for passage through their tunnels to get to Druda faster”. Syndra sighed – “I see.. There is no stopping you, is there?” 

He let out a little chuckle – “heh, that is, if they approve of our request.” Syndra shrugged – “at a time of great catastrophe, you’d think all the species would come together and work as one… Instead, the dark elves still refuse to interact, the dwarves keep their mountains off-limits, the forest elves are still fighting humans and the fae are minding their own business.” He nodded – “Look at us. They said a dark elf could never be together with a forest elf, and yet…” 

She finished his sentence for him “Here we are! And nothing will separate us, not even the awakening of the ancient.” She gritted her teeth, obviously frustrated. Kendel reached out for the scroll, broke the seal and unrolled it carefully, reading over it attentively.

‘The northern kingdom, in alliance with the Thundercloud fae and dwarves grants your request for safe passage through our lands. In addition, we will provide an escort and a diplomatic delegation representing dwarves and fae, to accompany you to the Druda’ Signed by King Widebrow. 

Kendel let out a sigh of relief as his grimace twisted into a hopeful smile – “they.. Approved! And not just that! The fae joined them! A delegation from dwarves and fae will join us on this trip to Druda” Syndra’s eyes widened as her eyes began to water – “Fae? Even the fae who remained silent for the past decade? Now… if only we could convince the forest elves! ” He nodded – “then we shall visit them before we head to Druda, no?”

They headed to the duke and showed him the response. Upon a quick discussion among the representatives present, duke approved of their request to visit the forest elves, in hopes of establishing a cease fire agreement and gathering a delegation from them, prior to departing to the dark elves’ lands in search of knowledge. Duke himself will personally accompany them on this trip. Their first stop is the kingdom’s capital to gain the king’s approval.

Kendel awoke from the coachman screaming “HALT” as the carriage came to a sudden stop. They were stopped by a spontaneous road check by the kingdom’s army. The check did not take long, once they confirmed duke’s identity, they were back en route once more. The next time Kendel opened his, he was greeted by a face glaring through the window, the face of the capital’s guardsman. 

Meeting with the king was later that night, they had the entire day for preparing. And so they did. Later that night, the king was pleasantly surprised to hear of the northern kingdom’s approval for passage and plans for them and fae to form a delegation. He approved of cease-fire request with the forest elves and allying with the other species for the survival of their world. 

As a result, Kendel and Syndra were now on their way to the forest elves, accompanied by a whole platoon of royal guards and his majesty’s one and only son, heir to the kingdom. The trip took 5 days and they were greeted, as expected, with hostility. Only a handful of guards were allowed into the elven territory, as personal guards for the nobles, the rest were mandated to remain at the border.

Upon arriving at the Zonio, they were instantly brought to the council of the elves, who were to decide their destiny, and potentially the destiny of the entire world. The prince and duke explained the northern kingdom’s plans, and the terms on which humans would be willing to coexist with wooden elves. While disagreements like this are difficult to settle between species with fundamentally different perspectives on lives, they were willing to go through with this no matter the costs.

A week of debating and discussions later, during the final day of trial, the council was to vote. With hesitance, the wooden elves agreed to the terms of peaceful co-existence with the human kingdom, settling on the demands of farming fields to be built and mutually cared for by humans and elves as a separating border between their kingdoms and species. A delegation was formed and ready to go. 

A month has passed, and the increase in earthquake frequencies and intensity were a clear sign of the impending doom. The world was slowly turning into turmoil, as chaos and panic spread not only among humans but dwarves and elves alike. They were on their way to the hostile lands of the dark elves. With delegations representing humans, dwarves, fae, and forest elves, but with minimal guard force, so as to not appear threatening to the secluded dark elves. 

Their presence was quickly detected by the scouts, who seemingly, from shadows, escorted them all the way to Druda. Surprisingly to all, the dark elves showed very little to no hostility towards the intruders. They were greeted by a rather small guard force of the Druda upon their arrival, and within seconds of entering the city, it was obvious that dark elves were struggling, potentially more than others, from public disorder.

They were escorted to the palace and greeted as guests. And thus, Syndra, Kendel, prince of humans, a queen of forest elves, a dwarven king Widebrow, and Orleyna Fey found themselves standing in a middle of a round auditorium. The dark elven syndicate occupied seats all around them. The discussion went on for hours. Each faction speaks for their values and the extent to which they’re willing to go in order to survive the impending apocalypse. 

Their meeting was interrupted by a guard bursting through the doors – “THE GRAND LIBRARY BURNS MY LIEGE!” the rather quiet room quickly turned into a murmur, as the head of syndicate stood up- “We will continue after dealing with this issue.” To the surprise of the delegations, the Syndicate was quick to sprint out of the room, as if heading to the fire themselves to deal with it. Widebrow cackled – “Hah! It’s not in dwarven nature to sit idly and wait! I’m going too” he ran after the syndicate.  

The rest followed right after, some to watch and some to help. Grand library of Druda was famous worldwide, said to contain knowledge on the ancients who slumber away their days. The knowledge of civilizations that existed and are no more. Knowledge of the past and even the future, all gathered in one place, archived and hidden from the rest of the world. It is said, that some of the knowledge could prevent the end of the world, and some could cause it. 

Syndra wanted a great, tall, stone chapel, massive tongues of flames shooting out its windows. The dark elven delegation was chanting in a language she couldn’t understand, when suddenly, Kendel placed his hands over her ears and spoke quietly – “Watch closely” And in that instant, lightning hit the roof of the library, opening up a portal where it struck. Through the portal, a fiend emerged.

 Its twisted shape was nightmare-inducing. Its mouth was its belly! Its skin, as if half molten, hung off its bones. Eyes like voids and mouthless head. It glanced around and then opened up its belly, sucking in the air and flames that consumed the grand library. It took merely a few moments for the fires to be completely absorbed by the devilish fiend that now stood atop the half-burned roof. 

It walked back through the portal it came from, and the portal closed right after it. The syndicate and delegations returned to their discussions, which now proceeded with more caution after the incredible show of force from the syndicate’s side. Still, this did not change the focus of the discussion or the interest of either side in cooperating with each other. 

Before long, agreements were signed and deals were sealed. The world was now allied with a single goal in mind – preventing the awakening of the Nixrus. The scholars from all factions were invited to study and share knowledge with each other at the grand library of Druda, or, its archives to be precise. Deep below the ground, where no flames could touch the most sacred of artifacts and knowledge. 

After a couple of weeks of restless research, the conclusion was drawn that the forbidden bond to stop the awakening of an ancient was in fact, the connection of leylines. Each faction knew of them but only elves truly utilized the energy of the planet for the good of their species. Dwarves simply enjoyed the minerals which grew near the leylines, and humans cared nothing for them. 

The best elven sorcerers were sent to each faction and kingdom to take control of the leylines and establish connections. Dwarven digging teams accompanied them to uncover and create passages to direct leyline connections. Fey guided them to the leylines and humans provided the provisions and logistics. The date of prophecy was coming up. In merely a week was left! 

The preparations were complete, and the leylines were connected, but the tremors did not stop. The ancient 1 was still waking. Kendel, Syndra, and the others stood by the base of a volcano, where Nixrus the ancient god, was said to slumber. They watched beams of energy from leylines all connecting above the volcano in a spectacular light show that could best be described as otherworldly. 

A mighty tremor shook the earth – “I don’ get it! We done as books described!” grunted widebrow, holding his axe at the ready. Orleyna chuckled, sitting on his head – “your axe sure isn’t going to do you any good here, big dumbo!” The elven queen frowned – “and thus we see the end as it awakens. At least we have all come together.” Human king chuckled – “Far too late have we set our differences apart” 

As the lava shot up, out of the volcano. A spectacular show of connected leylines, as if plant’s leaves, with lava as the stem, put all who could see it into awe. And at that moment, from the incredible spectacle before them, Kendel instinctively took out his lute and began to sing quietly. “The end, the end, the end has come. We are to be naught but a crumb.” The Widebrow laughed – “ey lad! I like that! Let us die to great music” he said as he sat down and watched a shape, slowly emerge from the volcano, amidst the lava fountain. 

The bard continued his performance as the leaders all sat down, humming to his melody, watching a shape slowly emerge from the volcano, amidst the lava fountain. The head of dark elven syndicate sighed – “To think I’d spend my last moments in the company of my son whom I cast out, and those I deemed to be my enemies until recently, ironic.” The Orleyna smirked – “who said it’s the end? You all are so depresso!” 

The dwarven king swayed from side to side- “ALAS ALAS HERE LOOK AT US!” The forest elves queen continued – “Together we, sit all at last” The human king chuckled – “Those whom I once despised, now together, we are cast”. The horned, barely human shape remained hovered in the air, just above the volcano, its gaze, clearly focused on the group at the base of the volcano. “Let us all, have.. One.. last.. BLAST” Shouted the Widebrow as he jumped to his feet, grabbing his axe.

He took the lead and charged up the volcano. The rest followed him without hesitation. What could a group of mere mortals do to an ancient god? Absolutely nothing. But at last, they who found themselves on opposite sides of an ever-lasting, 5 way conflict, now stood side by side and were ready to die standing side by side with those they hated before. 

It was truly mutual hatred. Each faction hated the other because of their differences in views and values. Humans hated elves because humans desired resources and wood! Dwarves and elves hated them for that. Elves hated dwarves for using wood and dwarves hated elves for not being interested in gold. Fae despised them all equally for caring about material values instead of spiritual. And dark elves, keepers of the knowledge, knew countless civilizations that existed and died, and they all were the same.

–

In a bright flash, the dawn has come. He awakened from his slumber and sat up. Before him was a flower field, decorated with beautiful, red roses, perking up among the lush green grass. He got up and stretched, admiring the beauty of the field before him. “So, what was it this time?” called out a voice from seemingly everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “This time.. A world had met its end” replied the man, wearing long black robes as he knelt down and patted 1 of the roses. 

“It was a beautiful end, spectacular.” The shapeless voice replied – “Then, shall they be granted another chance?” the robed man nodded – “So they shall”. He smiled as the rose before him withered away, and the world that was destroyed now returned to life. The group stood atop the volcano. The creature before them, was gone without a trace. 

it is said the world lives on in peace and harmony.