Chương 494: 494

Mark ended up in a palatial meeting room midway up the branch, on the lake-side of Tribe Khava. Then they left him alone to look over the archives of their histories that Khava had digitized. The actual history of the island was basically pictures taken 10 years after the fact, when the survivors met humans from outside the island and thus got tech back here, back home, to help them take pictures and understand what they were seeing. Because when Crash crashed to Daihoon in the Reveal, everyone lost their memories.

The records from modern day were a lot easier to understand. Mabi had left several handheld screens for Mark to organize the information he found, but Derek ended up using all of those, as well as many of the pillows in the room so he could make himself comfortable. Derek also made Mark comfortable, too, making some coffee from the kitchen to the side and then handing Mark one.

Mark thanked him as he sat on a nice couch next to a nice table, massive windows open to the cool night, the auroras glowing over deep mists while stars glittered beyond, while Quark made a bunch of floating, holographic books for Mark to read. Derek digested the reading lot faster than Mark." Oh my Freyala," a Derek said to Mark, tapping at his screen from where he sat on the floor, on a bunch of pillows, like all the other Dereks.

"Page 189 of the expedition to Kabberjaw. Do you remember Sela Vonn? Of Stronghold?" Mark waved his hand through the air, shifting to the expedition record, and then to page 189, saying, "The leader of the Skull Guard— No. That was Wang Lo… Sela was the head priestess of the Skull Hall, right?" Mark added, "I think she hated us, right? The main people who hated us… I think."

Reading about the Picory's expedition to Kabberjaw was as much a refresher of that time as it was a lens into someone else's dealings with those people. Mark had completely forgotten about whoever Sela Vonn was until about 10 minutes ago, when he read about her and how she had started a pogrom against Raptor. A month ago, at the time of the Picory's expedition, Stronghold was at total war with the island of Raptor.

It was mostly a cold war, though, except for the public purges of Stronghold, because Raptor had allied with the Church of Freyala. With Freyala's power, Raptor was able to stop Stronghold's aggression. The 'Light in the Dark' religion of Stronghold, of Kabberjaw, was still going strong, though. It wasn't actually Light In the Dark. LITD was a very old religion, suspected to be the precursor to all other religions on Daihoon.

The Skull Priests of Kabberjaw believed in the Eternal Death of their Dragon King, at the hands of outsiders, and they revered his sacrifice by carving skulls out of dragon bone and making them glow. Mark didn't find out about the outsider threats that broke the Dragon King and thus broke the alliances of the worlds, until much later than his own time in Kabberjaw.

Before they got the Reset Quest from System Prime, and then more clarity came from all the AIs of the world trying to understand Mark's team's documentary of Endless Daihoon, Mark believed that the Dragon King's eternal not-death was just a thing that people believed. … Actually, Mark still wasn't sure if the eldritch were the threat that broke the Dragon King and also the world. It was just the one that made sense.

All that history was too far gone to truly know anything about, and System Prime wasn't willing to speak on stuff like that. But, since the eldritch were still out there, still prowling outside of the Eye of the Moon, still making entities like Nobody Important truly scared, then 'the eldritch are what the Dragon King fought and died against' made the most amount of sense. Anyway! Kabberjaw, religion and wars, and the Head Priestess of Skull Hall Sela Vonn; all of it was rather confusing.

Mark said, "I was kinda reading how the Picory expedition made inroads to Skull Hall because of Light In The Dark religious overtures? Not sure if I got that right. I was reading about dragons." The dragons of Kabberjaw usually watched the humans that lived below them, and nothing more, but they had actually talked to the Picory expedition. They had stayed away from Mark and them once Mark and them had entered Kabberjaw.

Farhowla, Gedahowla's understudy who never got to rule Aluatha because of the royal family taking over and killing all dragons, had talked with the expedition. That glowing gold dragon that sold Mark all of Eliot's brightspeed crystal for some adamantium was there, too. Her name had been Odanci, and Mark mostly remembered how she had killed her ward when that ward had promised Mark death and destruction.

Mark had never gotten the chance to speak with Farhowla, though from what he was reading, he was pretty sure that Farhowla had been expecting Mark to visit him. All of these records of the trip were written, without actual visual recordings, so Mark wasn't sure if he was reading that right, or not. Mark asked, "What happened to Sela Vonn?"" She couped the Stronghold government," a Derek said, and then the first Derek scoffed and said, "I was gonna tell him, asshole!" A few Dereks chuckled.

Derek said to Mark, "She went after the guys on Skybones, too, and she almost lost that war, but then some of the stuff the expedition left her helped her win that battle. Some bombs, I think. So Stronghold now controls both the skull, and the sky, and all the religious zealots of the Skybones are dethroned, though I'm not clear on that part yet." Another Derek told Mark, "These records are all scrubbed." Another Derek said to the second one, "Could be the Forgetting ruining correspondence."

Yet another Derek said, "No. It's a purposeful erasure of history." Mark remembered Sela Vonn a lot more, now.

"She couped her government… but she was already basically their leader, right?"" She cemented her rule by stringing up the Skull Guard captain Wang Lo and a bunch of other guys, putting their skulls on spikes by that lighthouse just inside of the skull," Derek said. Another Derek added, "Behind the nose," then the first Derek said, "And she used a bunch of Eliot's engines and stuff to make her religion even stronger, by making a bunch of glass skulls into lightbulbs that she didn't have to use Worship to make glow.

But! By making the skull-bulbs so bright, she also made all of the normal glowing skulls stronger." Another Derek added, "That could just be a side effect of the entire island experiencing more glowing effects since we went there and everyone knows about them. The Dragonists are highly interested in Kabberjaw… don't think you ever saw that, did you?"" No," Mark said, curiosity spiking, "Didn't realize that about the dragonists and Kabberjaw." The first Derek said, "Sela Vonn was such a bitch.

She killed me twice when I was just looking around." Mark agreed that Sela Vonn was a terrible person, but that didn't concern him right now. Mark asked, "Did you say that Kabberjaw was glowing more these days?" A few Dereks looked toward another Derek in the back of the room, who then spoke up, "Oh yeah. I'm reading up about that right now, and calculating trends with a few others. It's weird, right? Why is Kabberjaw glowing? Does that have anything to do with Sela Vonn's rise to more power?

And what about the Dragonists of Aluatha? In all, I can guess that yes, it's all connected. Sela got more power —even though the Worship of Kabberjaw was down inside of Kabberjaw! — and was thus able to do more to the people of Kabberjaw, to control her area more, and thus there's a runaway situation happening. I bet Raptor is holding their own because of many reasons, but mostly because Freyala is a real goddess and Kabberjaw's Light In The Dark-adjacent religion is like a proto-religion.

It's not very powerful or nuanced, except in the ways it is powerful." Derek added, "It seems to be powerful in the ways of tyranny and crushing dissent." Another Derek said, "You can't read that into this." Another Derek agreed, "The information is too sparse to make that call." The other Derek capitulated, saying, "Probably right."" But Kabberjaw is glowing more, right?" Mark asked, making sure that question was at the forefront of Derek's multi-stream of consciousness.

Derek might be able to think with a hundred minds at once and sort through all of that thinking, but Mark was… well, he was mostly contained to one body, right? Or could he… actually. He could make more brains, but— This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it." Yeah, Kabberjaw is glowing more," Derek said. Another, closer Derek asked, "But you went off on a tangent there with your own thoughts?""

I was thinking about an Understanding Party with just us, about all of this stuff," Mark said, and then he added, "But also, I don't need to know absolutely everything happening here or in history. I can learn it later. What I need to know, and what I need to do, is consider the nature of the people here in Vaka, as a whole, and then act accordingly. Do I ally with them deeply, or help them and move on?

I'm pretty sure I'm allying with the Khava over all the other options, because they seem to be the only ones with ties to Aluatha. And, you mentioned that Goofy Goblin was out there, and I need to find him and talk to him about the goblin menace from his angle… and I suppose that leads us to Grax, and also fucking… Kardi, if she's out there, which I am sure she is, and then comes Thrashtalon. All of this stuff about the Picory expedition to Kabberjaw is really important, but..."

I need to make a lot of judgments on very little information, while knowing I am going into a big firefight soon." A few Dereks gathered up some books and set them aside while others checked the doors, and another Derek sat on the couch across from Mark, saying, "So basically… the Khava are the right choice." A weight Mark didn't know he had vanished from his shoulders. Mark sighed a little, saying, "Good. I thought so, but… they fucking talked about allying with Dominant, Derek.

It was bad enough in New Tokyo with all those superheroes not realizing just how bad Dominant is, but… but I suppose the people here didn't know how bad Dominant is, either. They have their own problems. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been when everyone's memories vanished after the Reveal." Mark easily imagined having the goblins at his front gate, though. Derek nodded, saying, "They've overcome a lot, but they're at a breaking point.

That whole thing where they sat around in the courthouse and talked as a united front? That was for them as much as it was for you." Mark sighed, stress returning.

"Are they at civil war with each other?"" Not yet, and I doubt they would be."" That's… good?"" There is some good news," Derek said, "The Khava are the weakest tribe here, basically a non-entity, and that will likely never change because there's something about working tech that makes it impossible to work the Blessing properly, which is what the Arona and the Rarei do, and where they get their true power. The civil war would have been between the Arona and the Rarei.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think the Khava had plans to bug out if things got too terrible. That's what the airship is for." Mark wondered what the Arona's heartlands looked like compared to the Rarei's homelands, but that wasn't too much of a concern. He imagined the Arona were more magical, while the Rarei were more martial." Moving on," Mark said, "You were able to explore all of Kabberjaw and a bunch of places outside of it, too, like that whole elven land below Nobody Important…

Do you think the Dragon King and the Picory and Kabberjaw are related?"" Yes, I do, and they think they're related, too," Derek said, emphatically.

"You never went up to the top of Kabberjaw's pocket dimension, to where the big dragon's wingbones floated across the land, gently raining as they passed around the entire pocket dimension, to where a palace held at the very top, floating on a bone. But I did."" I remember you telling Isoko about a temple up there."" Yeah, and then she never went, and I never really talked about it, but now I'm thinking about it and I can tell you that it had statues similar to the ones down here, under the water.

It also had a giant tree growing in the middle. Not as big as these island trees, but still big." Derek added, "I never even considered the importance of any of that until now." A few of the Dereks opened up the books again, looking closer at certain parts. Mark suddenly remembered a lot more about that event, about that time. He asked, "Didn't we go to the ice wall with all the kaiju-eating trees and you talked to some… some elder-speaker-person at Kabberjaw about translation efforts?"" Yes I did!

Ena Raptor-Kin," Derek answered.

"She helped with the words on the ice wall. She's probably still at Raptor in Kabberjaw, though all of the reports the Picory brought back are a month old so who knows what the place looks like at the moment."" Are you there right now?"" I can be in about 3 days, but if you want me to investigate the sky palace then we could talk to Guardian Mabi, and that might work. The Khava are still the smallest tribe.

The Arona are the actual record-keepers, and the ones in charge of their expedition, though the Khava did man the airship that got them there. So if there are 'real records' somewhere, then the Arona have them."" Okay, so…" Mark said, "Yes, please go back to Kabberjaw. Meanwhile, I'll talk to Mabi about the expedition and specifically request information on the sky palace. I'll Skill whoever they need Skilled, and I'll leave for the morning meeting at the Lightning Spires… shit. I have to leave now, don't I?

How far are the spires? Quark?" Quark projected his voice into the room, "The Lightning Spires are roughly 1, 300 kilometers from this estimated location, based on star-triangulation. I am not sure where we are, exactly, sir." Mark winced.

"Fuck. That's a long flight… and I can do it. Say? Quark? Can you go through this information and find anything pertinent about the Blessing of Forgetting and this expedition to Kabberjaw?"" There are several personal reports of desires to know the actual death of the Dragon King, for they do not believe the accepted story of the Dragon King becoming a super dragon and killing something.

After hearing the story from Sela Vonn herself and the Skull Priests of Stronghold, three people in the expedition were absolutely sure that Dragon King died fighting the eldritch, but the causes of his death and never-death were obfuscated through time and distance and the Skull Church mutating the truth through the generations. If the Forgetting caused any loss of history, then it is not active anymore, in that way, because it already erased everything.

Also, the Reveal caused a lot of harm to the history of Kabberjaw, as well as to the history of the Picory."" Hmm…" Mark's thoughts turned deep. Derek asked him, "What?" Mark asked, "Well… The Dragon King was supposed to be a tyrant who ruled for 2, 500 years before he gathered up a bunch of demons to become a super dragon and then he died and 'never died' at the hand of some unknown —probably eldritch— entity, right? So… how exactly do we know that the eldritch are the real problem and not like…"

Mark picked a scenario out of thin air, "Dominant backstabbing the Dragon King and then overthrowing everyone with a long-standing plan that he finally got the chance to enact? Or something like that?" Mark clarified, "I say this because the trees and the statues around the trees are the things that actually control the eldritch and turn them away. Dominant likely has a great deal of ability to…" A cold chill rippled down Mark's spine as a thought, a fear, gripped him.

Derek noticed Mark's tension, all of him suddenly turning Mark's way. Mark continued his thought, "Dominant could probably protect himself and a few people from a Reset, and then set down roots that would protect him and his, and no one else. Sure, he would lose a lot, but he's immortal anyway." Mark was suddenly furious, in an impotent sort of way.

"Gods. Fucking hell… He could just pull a big plug on the Systems that we don't even know about… Well! Maybe not?" Mark made himself believe things weren't that bad, saying, "I'm just being paranoid. He'll probably just nuke us all to death if things go poorly. Maybe a Systemic attack is too much, even for him, and especially with Nobody Important locking that down… if he is still doing that." Derek kinda stared, concerned." Okay that's enough reading." Mark stood up, saying, "Quark.

Tell Mabi I'm ready to Skill some people and that I have questions."