Hi All
I am sure you're all chomping at the bit after what @zakludick wrote on Monday but as I only have ~1,000 words, this is all you're getting. So, enjoy!
Lucien wasn’t stupid. He had felt a shift in the air and the twins act odd. The boy looked at Mortis in confusion, while the girl sniffed the air like a wolf catching a scent. He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he would let it go for now. He was sure he would find out eventually what was going on, but now, he would wait. He was good at waiting.
“How much do you know about where we came from?” he asked.
Mortis immediately replied by telling Lucien what his half-brother had told them. Lucien was glad the old spirit had found a home and friends amongst these humans. It was better than being dead after all. The Lifedrinker concentrated on what the revenant said and nodded his head.
“My master was old even by human standards and wanted to resist the march of time. He consorted with witches and soothsayers but never got the answer that he wanted. Immortality didn’t exist. He refused to believe that. So, he travelled the world in both body and spirit in hopes of finding some answer.”
“Blood.” Interrupted Adrian.
The Lifedrinker fixed him with a weathered look and the boy backed down.
“Blood is life essence, without it, you cannot be alive. You are dead or undead.”
“Aren’t Lifedrinkers undead?” asked Magna.
Annoyed at the interruption Lucien pushed the cuff of his shirt up and ran his sharpened nails over his skin, producing a small drop of blood.
“We aren’t like the Lifedrinkers from your fairy tale books.” He snapped. “We are godlings.”
“Careful now.” Said Mortis.
This shocked the revenant, he hadn’t meant to say that, but the words echoed throughout the room. Lucien didn’t seem to like that either and he sneered.
“We bleed like mortals, but don’t die like them. We are immortal.”
“Unless I create a mortal wound you cannot heal from.” Said Sebastian.
Realising he was going to be continuously interrupted if he gave these people half a breath, Lucien continued.
“Gods would walk the earth in times past. Lesser gods but gods nonetheless. They were in charge of looking after the world and the creations within it, while the higher pantheons kept dimensional beasts from entering the realm.”
Lucien saw Adrian open his mouth to ask a question, but Mortis shushed him.
“We knew these gods were immortal, we understood that. Yet, there were some who had tried to use that power before but have never succeeded.” Lucien quickly continued. “Gods aren’t easily tricked until they are. All you need to do is find their vice and exploit it.”
“Not all vices are exploitable.” said Mortis, again before he could stop himself.
“True, and some are far easier, especially when you dangle something they want before them.”
The revenant paused and said, “Earthly pleasures.”
Lucien was surprised that Mortis was able to hone in on that point so quickly.
“Yes. Gods that walk with mortals must abide by their laws, failure to do so would result in banishment or non-existence.” Lucien clicked his fingers. “However, if it could be done in secret with just the right god, then it would be possible.”
So, this is what happened.
The voice echoed within Mortis’s head and now he was sure the entity he had seen was within him. He noticed both the twins looking at him and he slightly raised his hand, indicating that he would speak to them later.
“My master enticed a god with, shall we say some not so holy bait, and once he had the god within his clutches, the experiments began.” Lucien grinned a little and then frowned deeply. “The research was exciting and new when I eventually joined, but this was well after immortality was given to our kind. Everyone was living an ever-lasting dream of long health and life.”
“Then the Hunger was born.”
“Born? No, it was there all along. The god’s final revenge against those who would keep it captured, draining its blood to maintain their ill-gotten immortality. The hunger burned within all of us, but we drowned it out in excess until mortal blood was spilt. The hunger rose up within all of us. A hunger we had never experienced before, and anything that we had used in the past to quieten the hunger no longer worked. People were devolving into animals, tearing at each other to get the blood they needed. The more they fought, the more they became beasts. Some reverted to animals, the werebeasts you know today. Others starved themselves until they were no more than husks, the walking dead. Those of us who remain kept our sanity by feeding on the living. Humans, animals, it didn’t matter. The earth-walking gods disappeared and with no one looking after this universe, it started to decay. Curses sprang up like diseases.”
Lucien took a deep breath, “In a moment of clarity, and a more than a few peasants. I delved further into the research my master had started and found the beast whose blood ran in our veins. It was no longer a god, but this thing. It’s difficult to explain.”
Lucien seemed to ponder for a moment what he was going to say. Mortis took the time to listen to the voice echoing in his skull.
It was a forest god that fell. When we realised what happened, we wanted to help, but the higher pantheon forbade it and cursed the god.
“I don’t understand.”
“Then wait till I am done talking.” Snapped Lucien.
The Lifedrinker thought a bit, then said, “I had no idea that a god sat before me, changed in a room having its lifeforce bled from it. It didn’t even look like a god anymore, more like a rabid beast. When it saw me, it tore at its chains, salivating, doing everything within its power to reach me. It wanted its essence back. My master, who was still studying the original god, saw the reaction and wasn’t even concerned that I had found his secret to our immortality. No, he was thrilled, because it was finally awake and reacting. It hadn’t been like that for decades. My master knew of the hunger and had been using the god’s life to sate his. In his twisted mind, that led him to believe that if we could separate the immortality aspect from the hunger, then we’d lose the hunger, but retain immortality.”
And with that, the ball is in Zak's court once more.
Here is an explanation of Chain Stories and here is the current Chainstory Library
Mortis Custos
Sanguifex
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