â ď¸ CAUTION! ENTRANCE COULD MEAN DEATH â ď¸
The code of the dead is not for the eyes of the living.
Looking upon it might grant you a premature death.
Death is unavoidable.
After the Wedding
The great hall of Nexus slowly emptied. Footsteps echoed against marble floors as nobles in their finest silks departed, their whispered conversations fading into the corridors beyond. Common folk filed out in reverent silence, still processing what they'd witnessedâtheir King accepting Talveran's power, the blood pact sealed before their eyes.
Candles flickered in their sconces as the last guests departed, casting dancing shadows across the vaulted ceiling. The air still hummed with residual magic from the ceremony, a barely perceptible vibration that made the hairs on one's arms stand on end.
Renaldo stood alone near the altar, watching the congregation leave. In his hands, he held an ancient tomeâleather-bound, impossibly old, its cover adorned with silver clasps shaped like skeletal claws. The Book of the Dead.
When the last footfall faded and only silence remained, he turned to Lyra.
Renaldo: "Here, take this book to Daric. He is going to need it."
Lyra frowned. The book felt heavy in her handsânot just its physical weight, but the burden of what it contained. Renaldo's personal collection of death magic, spells that could unmake reality itself, knowledge that even the Keepers feared.
Lyra: "Why would you give this to Daric? You know what he is going to do with it? I do not believe there can be any good that shall come from this, Renaldo. I question your sanity."
Renaldo chuckledâa dry, knowing sound that echoed in the empty hall. His sapphire eyes glinted with something that might have been amusement, or perhaps satisfaction.
The Philosophy of Neutrality
Renaldo: "You assume I want him to do anything good with it? My sanityâthat is an interesting concept. To be sane needs a point of reference, my dear Lyra."
Renaldo: "You and I are more alike than you would care to think. You are young, but you will find that in order to keep the balance between what you deem as good vs bad, you will have to do many 'insane' things to bring your balance."
Renaldo: "Of the three magic orders, I feel that Neutrality just might be the more evil of them all. Because your alignment shifts like paper in the wind. And yet you stand here asking me what 'good' can come from giving the Obsidian Cabal the Book of the Dead filled with my magic spells?"
She paused. The weight of his words settled over her like a shroud. Her emerald eyes searched his face, looking for mockery, for manipulationâbut found only patient certainty.
Lyra: "Wait, are you saying that I am evil, Renaldo?"
He could not help himself. He laughedânot cruelly, but with the sound of someone who has lived long enough to find the question itself amusing.
Renaldo: "Lyra, did I say that? No. I said that in order to act in neutrality, you cannot define it as evil or holy. You have to look at it as balancing the scales."
Renaldo: "Excessive Order is just as bad as excessive Chaos. There must be a balance between the two."
Renaldo: "In order to maintain a proper balance, there will be times when you will have to reign chaos upon those that seek control, and other times you would have to encourage the iron fist of order."
Renaldo: "Because you see, my young one, if you speak in terms of strict order, you have a clear black and white side that does not allow for any shade of grey. When there is not a shade of grey between the harsh contrast of black and white, you have no room for mercy or forgiveness."
A clear shock came across her face. The implications unfolded in her mind like a map she hadn't known she was reading. Order without mercy. Chaos without consequence. Balance requiring... destruction. She became lost in thought for a moment, her fingers unconsciously tightening on the book in her hands.
When she spoke again, her voice was quietâbut steady. The voice of someone who has just understood their terrible purpose.
Lyra: "So in order to break Lumina's control, Nexus must be shattered and the gods must fall."
Renaldo's smile was small, satisfied. Like a teacher watching a student finally grasp the lesson that would define their entire existence.
Renaldo: "Exactly."
All revolts start as an idea. Or a divergence of ideas.
The Obsidian Cabal
Daric
The second highest authority within the Obsidian Cabal, Daric oversees all operations and strategies. He is the mastermind behind the Cabal's plans, ensuring that everything aligns with Aether's chaotic vision.
Daric is ruthless and calculating, known for his cold precision and unyielding loyalty to Aether.
The Book Changes Hands
Lyra found Daric in the shadowed corridors beneath Nexus, where the Obsidian Cabal conducted their rituals away from prying eyes. Torchlight flickered against damp stone walls, casting his angular features in sharp relief. The ancient tome felt heavier with each step she took toward him, as if the book itself knew what was about to happen.
She approached him slowly, the book held before her like an offering.
Daric: "Lyra, why do you give this to me? When you know what I seek it for? I thought you were a good guy?"
Lyra laughed.
Lyra: "I was recently re-educated. I understand my place in the order of life a bit clearer. I am what I need to be to keep the scales."
Daric: "That makes no sense, Lyra." (frowning)
Lyra laughed.
Lyra: "It does not make sense to me either yet. But I am sure it will become clear soon enough."
Daric eyed her with suspicion.
Daric: "How did you get Renaldo's personal book of death magic?"
Lyra smiled with wicked innocence.
Lyra: "That is an easy answer. He gave it to me to give to you."
Daric: "Right. Like I am supposed to believe that."
The Book Awakens
He took the book in his hands. The moment his fingers touched the ancient leather, it hummedâa deep, resonant vibration that seemed to pulse in rhythm with a heartbeat that wasn't his own. The sound wasn't heard so much as felt, thrumming through his bones, resonating in his teeth.
The silver clasps on the front coverâshaped like skeletal clawsâmoved.
The claws came to life and bit his finger.
Sharp. Sudden. Merciless.
It drew bloodâcrimson welling from the puncture, flowing into the grooves carved into the book's cover. The tome drank the fluid greedily, ancient runes etched into the leather beginning to glow with sickly purple light.
The locks on the book... unlocked.
One by one, each tumbler clicking open with a sound like breaking bones.
Daric smirked. He did not draw back at the pain in his finger. He did not flinch. He let the book take its toll, watching with cold fascination as his blood disappeared into the ancient leather, as if the tome itself was alive and feeding.
Daric's eyes flashed with an eerie sapphireâbright, unnatural, glowing from withinâbefore fading back to sky blue.
But something had changed. Something fundamental. The book had recognized him. Accepted him. Bound itself to him.
Lyra: "Well, enjoy! I shall leave you and your naughty mind to spin whatever plans you like."
The Voices
Lyra's footsteps faded into the shadows, leaving Daric alone with the book.
And thenâ
Voices filled Daric's head.
Not one voice. Many. Layered. Overlapping. Some ancient beyond measure, others newly dead, all speaking in unison like a choir of the damned. They didn't come from outsideâthey erupted from within, as if the book had opened a door in his mind and let something vast and terrible pour through.
The Voices: "Your god lives not yet. He will come to you in due time, but until then we have planning to do."
The Voices: "Aether wants your blood sacrifice. Find a place in the farthest reaches of the Dimension, away from Sapphrine, to build me a temple. A shrine. A door to open so that when the time is right I may taste my revenge on my pathetic Queen, Sapphrine."
The Voices: "Do this for me, and I shall grant you power you cannot imagine."
Lyra and Diaglo
Lyra found Diaglo in the old gardensâthe ones that had existed before Lumina's influence turned Nexus into a monument of perfect symmetry. Here, wildflowers still grew between the stones, vines crawled untended across ancient walls, and chaos held sway in small, beautiful ways.
She went to him in secret, when the moon was dark and Lumina's eyes were turned elsewhere.
Lyra: "Brother, I must talk to you. I fear we must make special provisions."
She took a ball of hair out of her pocketâsmall, unassuming, wrapped in black silk. But Diaglo recognized it immediately. His expression shifted from curiosity to understanding to something darker.
He raised a brow, his voice low and dangerous.
Diaglo: "You want to make the stones?"
Lyra: "We must, because if you do not, all will be lost. I have already set the groundwork. The highway is already created. My crystalline knights turned out perfect. There is one for every stone."
Lyra put the hair in her brother's hand. The moment it touched his palm, he felt itâthe resonance of whose hair this was. The power contained within. The sacrifice it would require.
His fingers closed around it slowly, as if by not gripping it fully he could delay the inevitable.
The Cost
Diaglo: "Do you realize what you are asking me to do? This will shatter Nexus."
Diaglo's eyes narrowed in on herânot with anger yet, but with the dawning horror of someone who sees the full scope of what's being asked.
Lyra: "I know." (no hint of joy in her voice)
Her voice was flat. Dead. The voice of someone who has already mourned what they're about to do.
Diaglo: "Damn it all! Why would you want to shatter our home!?!" (with anger)
The words came out like a roarâpain and fury mixed together. His hand clenched around the hair, knuckles white.
Lyra: "Well, because our home has not felt like home since I have had a body. Lumina hates us. She hates anything that does not have perfect symmetry, and you know it. She needs to be tempered!"
Lyra: "The only way to do that is to make the stones of power, taint Xanther, and create a Lich King. Only then will we be able to have the power needed against Lumina!"
Diaglo: "Lyra, when do we decide when the sacrifice is too high? You are asking to destroy our home, taint Nexus's King, kill his brother, and for me to cut all ties to humanity."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence. Kill his brother. Not metaphor. Not symbolism. Actual murder of Xanther's blood kin to fuel the transformation into a Lich King.
She looked down, unable to meet his eyes while carrying the weight of what she was asking.
Lyra: "I know." (whisper)
The silence between them stretched like a wound.
Then she raised her eyes to meet his once more. There were no tearsâshe was beyond that now. Only grim determination.
Lyra: "But is the cost of inaction greater? What happens if we let Lumina maintain control? Everyone we love loses the reason we love them! She will either kill them, or send them through her 're-education.'"
The Revelation
Diaglo: "What do you mean?"
Her eyes went wide. She had assumedâgods, she had assumedâthat Lumina would have told her own brother. That their bond would have demanded honesty.
Lyra: "She did not tell you?"
The question was barely above a whisper.
He growledâa sound of pure betrayal, the noise an animal makes when wounded by someone it trusted.
Diaglo: "What is she hiding! We promised no secrets between us!"
Lyra's eyes filled with sadness. Not for what she was about to reveal, but for the fact that she had to be the one to destroy his faith in their sister.
Lyra: "She builds an army as we speak to march against Nexus. She has created 'Spectral Warriors'. They were created to destroy the Army of Ages."
Diaglo: "She would not dare!"
Lyra: "I will show you, brother." (expression deadly serious)
If you have been to this page before, maybe you missed something?
Perhaps a hidden link at the bottom of the page?
Look again. This is the Book of the Dead.
Do you have all of it?