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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any
resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter
Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-
One
Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter
Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-
Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter
Forty Chapter Forty-One
About the Author
Chapter One
"To truly understand the Ancient One, it must be understood that they are not
like any ordinary, mundane human who ever lived, before or since. Like all the
truly mighty mages of legend and song, Eddas Ayar was and is passionless, and
compassionless. Beyond humanity, Eddas Ayar was and is no mere mortal
being, but more a force of nature, or the will of a vengeful god incarnate. To
ascribe ordinary, human motivations to any mage is false - they wield powers far
beyond normal beings, and that power shapes their view of the world, distancing
them from it.
The greatest of mages were even more distanced from the world by their power,
and Eddas Ayar was and is perhaps the greatest mage in all of history. Thus, the
Ancient One was so far removed from humanity that ascribing human goals and
motivations to their actions is simply impossible."
- Lord Caladis, The Eddasine Chronicles, 1817 NCC
I reached out an ebon-gloved hand to adjust the full-length mirror, and looked
myself over. The same strange woman who had gazed back at me for seven
decades stood there, her expression calm. Even after all these years of gazing
upon the woman in the mirror, it still felt odd at times to see her rather than
myself - a tall, bearded, olive-skinned Hyperborean male.
The half-elf woman in the mirror was beautiful, of that there was no doubt.
Night-black hair drawn back into a ponytail, highly arched eyebrows, eyes as
black as jet... Her body, forged by seventy years of the ascetic life of a battle-
mage, had received its final forging in the raging, Page 1
destructive chaos that was the very heart of a mana-storm. Her beauty, because
of that, was beyond ordinary mortal beauty... She was, in fact, possessed of a
terrifying, alien and surreal beauty, fitting of who and what she really was. She
was dressed in the ebon, long-sleeved hooded robes I favored, though with a
black waist-belt over it to draw it closer about her figure.
Wearing the black, elbow-length kidskin gloves and knee-length kidskin boots
that had once belonged to my beloved Dyarzi, she looked every inch what the
that had once belonged to my beloved Dyarzi, she looked every inch what the
two ebon feathers she bore beneath her hairband announced she truly was - the
Raven of Yorindar.
"Old Man, stop primping! You look fine," a voice called.
I turned, looking over my shoulder, and saw Joy coming up the stairs to my
room at the top of my tower. Though now over ninety, the proud beauty of Joy's
youth had been restored by my own sorcery, and she was once again the golden-
haired goddess the late King Darian had taken as his wife. She was, in truth, a
giant - though her mother's brush with the edge of a mana-storm had left her
daughter of diminutive size, at a mere five cubits in height. And, though the
giants might still consider her to be quite small as she was barely the size of a
toddler to them, Joy towered head and shoulders above any human I had ever
known. "Old Man, you've fussed in that mirror for an hour, now. Come on - it's
nearly time. You don't want to be late."
"The first impression is very important, Joy. For some of those children, it will
be the first time they have ever seen me. For some others, it will be their first
day of lessons as an apprentice battle-mage," I replied, turning back to the
mirror. "I will leave nothing but my best impression each time winter returns,
and the children come."
"Yes, and for the rest of them, they've seen you a hundred times before and all
your primping is completely wasted. Now come," Joy said, and grinned at me.
I chuckled. "Well, I suppose you're right. After all, they can see what I really
look like beneath this garment of flesh, and most of them wouldn't even notice
what I was wearing. Still, it's the principle of the thing. I want them to always
know they're important to me - because they are."
As Joy and I walked down the stairs, she spoke again. "I still find that very odd -
that they can see more than we can see. What have you been able to discover of
it?"
I shrugged. "Well, as you know, each of them is the result of the little enchanted
bracer that Pelia and her women gave me," I replied, patting my upper left arm
where I wore the band beneath the sleeve of my robe. "The bracer allows me to
begin a pregnancy within them, though I lack the equipment to otherwise do so -
the enchantment responds to my male soul, which remains unchanged inside this
body. The children themselves have nothing of me in them - their germ-plasm is
body. The children themselves have nothing of me in them - their germ-plasm is
entirely that of their mother, and they are more like twins than daughters. Still,
because their lives were sparked with sorcery, their germ-plasm has been altered
by sorcery. My best explanation, after studying their auras myself, is that they
simply are more attuned to mana and astral emanations. They will be immensely
powerful mages when they grow up, I think, as they each will have an innate
understanding of mana-flow that even an apprentice with a strong Talent
normally takes years to learn. They can see astral space and astral auras clearly
and easily, Joy, just like I can with the Spell of Astral Vision or the spell of
Astral Projection. Nothing is truly hidden from them - they can sense emotional
states simply by glancing at one's aura, and tell what's really on someone's mind
just from the colors they see floating about them, which are directly derived
from various factors of emotion, intellect and personality. More, their vision is
uncannily penetrating and accurate. Normally, with a spell of astral vision, one
can only see the aura cast by the body itself, and whatever enchantments happen
to be upon it. All these children can see far more than that - they can see the very
soul. They know what I really look like, simply because they can see my male
soul housed within this body." I shrugged again. "Still, it's best to make light of
it, I think. After all, it wouldn't do to have them grow up thinking that they are in
some way odd or strange - they may be that, for a human, but in truth, they are
quite normal children, otherwise."
"I agree," Joy replied, nodding. "Having lived as a child being treated as an
oddity because I am so small, I can tell you that it is a terrible thing to
experience." Joy then grinned at me as we Page 2
stood outside my tower, standing in the thin layer of snow which covered the
ground. "And having raised two children myself, I can tell you that you make a
wonderful father."
I rolled my eyes at her. "Please, Joy. That's the one thing I can't be for them.
They spend the majority of the year with their mothers just so they'll not think of
me as 'father'. Fate and the gods have meant that our people are, for now, a race
with only one gender, and to my courtesans I am much like a bee to dozens of
flowers - they need my touch to reproduce, but the result is never another bee,
always another flower. Perhaps someday that will change - perhaps Yorindar has
some plan I am not aware of that will, eventually, solve this problem. I have
already developed a refined version of Pelia's spell that the Second Generation
can use on themselves, once their numbers rise to the point where there simply
can use on themselves, once their numbers rise to the point where there simply
are too many of them for me to act as the 'bee' to their 'flowers' - that, I
accomplished ten years ago. Unfortunately, it takes a master mage to even
attempt the spell, and none of them are even close to that level of power. So, for
now..." I said, and shrugged. "Eventually, each of them will have to come to me
and receive the same spell their mothers did, so that they may become mothers
themselves. It would not do for them to all think of me as 'father', then have to
turn to me later to become mothers, Joy," I said, and lifted my head as we stood
outside my tower. "I am their teacher, Joy.
I add to the lessons their mothers have taught. In a few decades, each of them
will be both a master healer and a master battle-mage, as well as the best
researcher and scholar of magic I can possibly make them. I must maintain an air
of propriety at all times, that they will grow up to be proper Hyperborean ladies
and well-educated, well-trained sorceresses. I am their teacher, Joy.
Only that, and nothing more."
There was a shimmering in the air before us, and all eighty-nine of my
courtesans appeared, along with their sixty daughters, all holding hands so Pelia
could transport them with a single spell of returning. Pelia and her woman all
smiled and called "Good morning, Eddas," as did the eldest of their children,
bowing their heads respectfully. The toddlers and infants, held in their mother's
arms, simply gaped - the experience of being translocated through sorcery was
still a new one, for them. The rest, two dozen girls all ranging between two and
ten, had a completely different reaction. They all immediately whooped with joy,
dashed over to me and all tried to hug me at once, screaming "Daddy! Daddy!"
My heart melted, and I went to my knees and gave each of them a hug. "Hello,
my little darlings!
How are you?"
"Hello, daddy! We're just fine!" chirped Myota, grinning broadly.
"I learned how to whistle just like a sparrow! Wanna hear?" asked Molati.
"I learned how to write my name! Wanna see?" Iola squeaked excitedly.
"I can tie my shoes, now, all by myself!" Kyoli bragged.
On and on they went, each bouncing and happy and chattering like excited
chipmunks, and soon I heard Joy's laughter above it all. "So, nothing more than a
teacher, Old Man?" Joy laughed again. "Every year, it's the same thing - you
spend days working yourself up to be aloof and proper, and when they get here,
you weep with joy."
I looked up to Joy, grinning, my cheeks damp with tears. "Oh, hush."
Chapter Two
"To understand the Hyperboreans is to understand Honor. It is their greatest
legacy, and the crowning jewel of their civilization."
- Elven proverb.
The days of winter flew past all too quickly, as they always did. I spent the
daylight hours teaching the eldest, in the same manner I had once instructed
countless apprentices in the Black Tower, seventeen centuries ago. Each was an
apt pupil, learning their lessons quickly and easily.
Of course, throughout the rest of the year, they learned the art of sorcery and
healing from their mothers, so this was not terribly surprising. Still, their own
innate abilities at sensing and understanding the flow of mana were quite useful
to them, and it took very little explanation for them to grasp even the most
complex of apprentice's lessons. Though they were only with me Page 3
four months of the year, their education progressed at a rapid clip. Finally, I was
faced with a predicament - and one that did not have a simple solution.
"I still don't understand what the problem is," Swift-wing grackled, sitting on
Arella-tor's shoulder. Arella-tor, the Court Wizardess of Larinia, had come for
one of her now-annual visits to appraise me of the year's activities at Steelgate,
King Noril's castle. Swift-wing, Arella's raven familiar, reached up a foot to
scratch an itch behind his feathered head as his mistress spoke.
"Neither do I, really. What exactly is the matter, Raven?" Arella asked.
"Well, Pelia's daughter, Lyota, is the eldest, at twenty. She has learned all the
lessons of an apprentice battle-mage, and is prepared to begin the journeyman's
lessons," I replied, nodding respectfully to Pelia, who sat with us at the table in
my room at the top of my tower.
Pelia nodded gravely. "That would, indeed, pose a problem."
Arella blinked. "Umm... With respect, High Mistress Pelia... I don't understand
