User:Catuse167/Ascalon/Blessing

Frederick's Blessing on this Wonderful World is a story set in the world of Farglance and Ascalon, and a distant sequel to the D&D campaign The Cycle of Helix, also set in that world. Halfway through Cycle, the Gyran general Lucia Moriarty used a cursed ruby known as the sacrifice of the steadfast to attain divinity, overthrowing the old gods, at an unpayable price: the lives of anyone who ever loved her. After Lucia was slain, her former comrade-in-arms Frederick (who was also teetering on the verge of divinity) transformed her ichor into a new sacrifice of the steadfast and deposited it atop Skull's Peak, the highest mountain he could find, halfway across the world.

Now, an expedition of five are training for the endless climb, hoping to retrieve Frederick's blessing for themselves, though the dozens of attempts before them had ended in tragedy...

Prologue
Many songs have been penned about the all-entrancing ruby known as the sacrifice of the steadfast, but two rang clearest in the minds of that band of explorers as they scaled Skull’s Peak that bloody year.

The first such song is the tragedy of a man who, for all the faith he had, may well have been a boy. And that boy, having forgotten his wife, lay with another; and the fates punished him dearly for his transgression, for from that union was made his bane: a baby girl. And that girl, though forsaken by her true family, found nurture and care in the arms of the cook. And that cook, who surely deserved better, met her untimely end when the girl sacrificed her to the ruby, thus becoming God. And that God, who was as wicked as she was just, slew the boy for his crimes.

The second such song is the tragedy of Frederick, a man who was more a machine -- or, as the lyrics tell us, a machine who was more a man. Frederick was tasked with the protection of the Free City Gyro, when it still glad above all, but through his schemes and his failures his home was struck from the heavens, only to be spared from absolute desolation by the love of God. The fates punished him dearly, erasing his mortality and turning him to a dragon-lord, condemned to watch over the Free City for all eternity from his Scorian lair. Seeing that he might himself play God, Frederick blessed this wonderful world with a ruby of his own creation, and challenged all the mortals of all the realms to scale Skull’s Peak: for if they, in their hubris, would climb higher than the airships fly, and if they, in their hubris, would give up all whom they have loved, they too deserve to lose their humanity.

2 June
"Gods -- can we -- take a -- break?" Baye panted. Behind him, Viola was wincing, her shirt soaked see-through with sweat. Ruan was struggling to stand, and looked like he wanted to cry with frustration.

"No, man." Macduff sputtered. "We’re -- doing -- great."

He stopped and caught his breath. "We can do it, we just gotta keep at it."

Duff stood and helped Ruan up. His shadow engulfed Celeste, who shivered.

Even though it was June, and they were still at the base of Skull's Peak, not all the snow had washed away, and they’d been running through the mud and ice since the crack of dawn. ("The ass crack of dawn," Baye had chuckled.) Any reasonable expedition for the steadfast that didn’t want to be trapped at the summit in a blizzard would leave before July, so they had just weeks to acclimate to the oxygen levels at superaerotime heights. And so, every day they would fly their airship as high as it would go, train for hours, and then fly back down, until Celeste's lungs were bitter cold and her legs weighed more than lead.

For Helen, she told herself. She just had to imagine her sister in intensive care, stuck full of needles, bumps, scars, wires, drugs, magicks, so feeble Celeste had to hand-feed her, and she knew she could run another mile. Though she couldn’t afford to waste the strength, Helen would always kick and fuss until the nurses left the room; for she was still Helen, Makoto Academy's star tennis player; Helen, who was going to grow up to be an ace ranger in the Mochizukan military; Helen, who took Celeste's hand, squeezed it red, and fought back tears and whispered "say strong" in her ear after her mother died of the same pox. And because she was still Helen, nobody but Celeste could see her at her weakest.

"Dude, you're doing great!" Duff grinned.

Ruan shrunk away from him. "Me?"

"Yeah! At the rate we're going we're all gonna see the top of Skull's Peak." Is that really a good thing? Only one of them could use the sacrifice of the steadfast, Ruan knew, and until now they’d agreed that they’d just give the ruby to "whoever survived the climb." There had been plenty of incidents of expeditionaries seeking out the steadfast, but none had succeeded. When the corpses of the last expedition had washed ashore downriver, the coroner hadn’t reported exposure as the cause of death, but rather blood loss and infected wounds. Bullet and knife wounds.

"One more mile, conversational pace, then we turn back," Celeste said through chattering teeth. And so they were off again.

Duff's encouragement felt good, but Ruan wasn't going to make it to the top anyways. Everyone else in the party had been training all their lives, he knew, while he’d only started a year ago. If he couldn't even make a ten mile run along the lower trails, how could he survive a several-month climb?

At least, if he did survive the climb and expressed his heart's truest desires before Frederick's blessing, he wouldn't have to bloody his hands. The others would have to kill for their wish; the ruby demanded of them sacrifice.

''My gods, I’m surrounded by would-be murderers. No, worse than murderers.''

Even Viola.

She certainly wasn't what Ruan would've imagined a killer to look like. Baye had his wild, curling hair, Duff had his huge frame, and Celeste had her burning green eyes. They were all larger than life in their own ways, while Ruan was smaller than it.

Viola was short and wiry, but not so petite that anyone would take her for a child. Her straight black hair was short, too, but not so well-trimmed that it looked like she put effort into it. Though she seldom smiled, her whole face lifted up when she did, closing her thin violet-stained eyes. She seldom rose her voice loud enough to be audible, and never so loud that it echoed.

In short, she wasn't any more intimidating than anyone in particular. She was terrifying.

"Please don't look at me like that."

Her words stung like frostbite. Had Ruan been staring?

"Yeah, Baye, quit creeping!" Duff ordered.

Apparently not. Ruan breathed a bit more easily.

"Sorry girl, sorry boss, but I just can't help myself," Baye said.

"We're supposed to be a team," Duff said. "Respect your teammates, Baye, or none of us aren't going to be getting up this damn mountain."

"Sorry boss, but we're not kids."

"Then stop acting like it!"

"I mean, we never voted you King of the Hill, or President of Skull's Peak, or whatever, either, so stop acting like it. Fuck off and leave me be."

Viola wished she had never said anything: now they would never stop barking at each other. As childish as Baye was, sometimes it seemed that Duff was no better. She slowed her pace, fell behind the group, and let the wind drown them out.

After thirty minutes -- no, her watch said, just five -- they reached the mile marker. Struggling to stand, Viola grabbed the post and tried to look out at the horizon to settle her stomach; but there was no horizon, only hills and trees all around. Every muscle ached, and they were only halfway done. Everyone was fumbling about and coughing.

She knew that Frederick had wanted to reserve his precious ruby, and all the power and pain contained in it, for only the most worthy, but surely there had to be a better means of determining worth than raw physical exertion.

Maybe the silver dragon had chosen this test because by any sensible gauge of worth, he was unworthy of his own blessing. Between his penchant for ordering his men on suicide missions, his alliance with Kailen the Mad King, and his mass execution of Lucian worshipers, the Guardian of Gyro had been a brutal tyrant in mortal life.

But now he was a god, and he could play such games as these.

Why are we playing along? Viola wondered.

It seemed that she wasn't the only one wondering covered in mud, snow, sweat, and doubt.

"For Helen," Celeste whispered, a bit too audibly.

"Helen?" Viola was puzzled. How could anyone use the sacrifice to protect someone else?

"Oh. My sister. She died of a pox. My mother too. So now, I want to wish for a cure. I've been training ever since."

"Aww, don't cry," Baye said. "I'll bring your sister back if I get to be God."

Viola gave Baye a look, then glanced sadly at Celeste. "I'm sorry. Though, that's a really noble goal, Celeste."

She smiled shyly. "Thank you."

Baye scowled, and Viola looked for a way to change the subject. "What about you, Ruan? What do you wish for?"

He shrank down uncomfortably. "Well, uh, you see..."

"Sorry if I'm intruding. You don't have to answer that."

"Maybe I'll tell you later. It's nothing special, you know?" The brown-haired boy didn't meet her gaze, but picked up a pebble and threw it into the woods.

"It's fine, really. These sort of things are really private." Viola considered commenting on the weather, but decided otherwise.

"Yeah, anyways, enough chatter, gang." Macduff came out of a stretch and turned to face the trail. "We're doing great. Let's get back down to the airship landing while our muscles are still warm."

"Yes, boss."

Ruan wiped the sweat from his face, Viola finished rubbing her side, and they were off again. Though their throats were cold, the sun was warm. If they could make it through today, maybe they could survive the climb. And there were only five more miles to go.