MEMORIES OF AN OVERLORD

   by Victar (vctr113062 [at] aol [dot] com)

   https://www.vicfanfic.com



	"Her brother beat me up. Not really bad. Just a black eye and stuff. He was so mad at me for never saying anything about how depressed she was.
	"I didn't fight back, or tell anyone who hit me. I was mad at me for never saying anything, too."

Chapter Four
Memories of an Overlord: Awakening the Warrior

	Riding in an airborne, dragon-pulled coach, Overlord Yusis and Anemos swiftly traveled to the shrine where Laminah Thor slumbered. Their journey was uneventful, until they arrived at their destination.
	At a quiet hour past midnight, the blue-scaled dragon harnessed to the coach swooped low over a shadowy valley. A stone shrine, not created by mortal hands, lay nestled in the valley's center.
	"Anemos, stop playing music and get ready to use a float gossamer on yourself," Yusis warned. "This could be a problem."
	"What could?"
	%I don't know how to land this thing safely.% Yusis' illusion of a living appearance did not change, but his voice abruptly buckled and twisted into something bloodcurdling.
	Anemos unpinned two float gossamers from his garments, and held one in each hand. "I am prepared."
	%Here goes-!%
	The dragon glided, then backpedaled its wings. As the flying monster decelerated, it changed position in midair. The coach swung downward until it was nearly vertical.
	Anemos did  not wait for the coach to eject him. The bard cast a magical gossamer with one hand, while invoking the second gossamer on himself, and held his lute close as he vaulted aloft. He somersaulted with the grace of a professional performer, and came to rest floating slightly above the ground.
	A loud noise sounded nearby. Anemos saw a vast plume of miasma rise into the air. Nothing remained of the coach; a wide swath of grass around its crash site had become withered and blackened.
	The miasma-smoke cleared, revealing Yusis and the dragon. The dragon rose on its hind legs, flapped its wings, and screeched.
	Yusis gazed into the dragon's glowing yellow eyes. %Not until I awaken all three of my Primary Servants. This will be the second one. Wait here for now.%
	The dragon pointed its head skyward and expelled a gout of black miasma-fire from its mouth, wailing a cross between a mournful cry and the stuff of nightmares.
	%It won't be much longer, Sasha.%
	"'Sasha'?" Anemos quietly repeated.
	Yusis lowered his head and folded his arms behind his back as he approached. "She was a Lunarl, once. Miasma killed her and reanimated her as a monster a long time ago, before the cycle began. She doesn't remember much from her life, other than her name."
	"Ah, duly noted."
	(Are you aware of it when your emotions make you lose control over the illusion disguising your voice?) the bard silently wondered. (Or when you retake that control?)
	Yusis stopped moving when he was directly across from Anemos.
	"I'm floating," Yusis realized, studying his own feet. They hovered above grass blades that withered, curled, and turned black from the miasma vapors that drifted off of his body.
	Yusis raised his head and flattened his eyebrows at the bard, as the flotation magic expired from both of them. "Why did you use a gossamer on me?"
	"Is it not obvious?"
	"You should have conserved your resources. You know I can change shape and fly."
	"Yet you did not."
	"%Shapechange% would have cost more power than repairing a little damage to this body, and I'm conserving my power for... reasons. Don't pretend you've forgotten how hard it was to destroy the last cycle's Overlord. The Greater Seal on Kreisia's miasma was in no danger, and you knew it. So, _why did you use a gossamer on me_?"
	(Is it truly not obvious to you anymore?) "You are my friend, Yusis."
	%Your friend died ten years ago.% Yusis' illusion of life vanished, reverting to the undead form of the Overlord Orzand. He unfolded his arms; his claw-nailed fingers tensed and curled like hooks. The swirling miasma vortex in his chest accelerated its rotation.
	"I remember. Before my friend died, he made a final appeal to believe in him. I did, and I still do."
	%That appeal has finished its purpose. It no longer applies.% The Overlord's malignant yellow eyes flashed in the darkness. %What's left of 'Yusis' can _not_ be trusted as a 'friend'. I thought you already knew this. If not, then you need to learn it _now_.%
	"I had to trust you when I accepted the ride here, did I not?"
	The Overlord glowered in silence, then turned away and entered the shrine holding Laminah. Anemos followed.
	The interior was almost identical to the shrine that had held Anemos. The only notable differences were the color of the gemstone on a pedestal - sapphire blue instead of emerald green - and the female figure sealed within a crystal, atop the obsidian surface of what had once been an active miasma font.
	Laminah Thor was a Varg, one of Kreisia's three races, known for their physical power and battle prowess. Varg women were naturally as strong as Varg men.
	A pair of short, sharp, immaculately filed horns jutted from Laminah's forehead. Her brown skin contrasted sharply against her long, stark white hair, with a bushy ponytail in the back. Anemos' eyebrows rose as he noticed a zigzag, jet-black streak stretching through the center of her tresses.
	(I suspect that black stripe will displease her. Perhaps I could offer her some handcrafted hair dye, when we have a spare moment together.)
	Other than the change to her hair, Laminah appeared just as Anemos remembered - tall, muscular, and fierce. She wore enchanted armor covering her shoulders, torso, and thighs; the armor's invisible wards defended her head and the rest of her body. She held a halberd with a long haft and a sharp, curved blade. Her lavender eyes gazed ahead, as if tracking an unknown foe.
	Laminah's face seemed expressionless, but Anemos remembered her well enough to know what that look truly meant. He had seen it before, in the heat of battle, when every instant mattered and there was no time to contemplate distractions, only to fight. To be as impossible to read as the moon; to flow like rushing water; to focus on one thing alone.
	(I cannot compare in the slightest to what you are capable of, Laminah.)
	%Anemos, do not stand too close when I release her. If she is a monster, then she will have the drive to destroy all life, including you.% The stern reproach did not seem to come from any discernable direction. Anemos glanced about, and spotted Yusis leaning against the far wall. The Overlord's yellow eyes glowed with a burning severity, and the miasma vortex in his chest had settled into a steady churn.
	(You are not invoking any illusions for Laminah's awakening. Is that because you know nothing can frighten her?)
	Anemos stepped back to oblige the Overlord.
	Thick, black fog gathered about Laminah's crystal prison, covering it. Yusis snapped his fingers; shards broke from the crystal, drawn away from the warrior's toned form without cutting her skin. As the miasma receded, the crystal's glittering fragments settled on the floor.
	Laminah breathed, "My king-!"
	Anemos remarked, "I expected as much, but did you also think of me? Even a little?"
	Her intense gaze fell squarely on the bard.
	%Don't kill him, Laminah!% Yusis commanded, yet before the words could take shape she had already vaulted aloft, her eyes fixated on Anemos as her target.
	The bard reacted with lithe grace, weaving away from her trajectory and strumming his lute. He invoked his own power, a mixture of magic and music that transformed waves of sound into tangible force.
	Laminah landed, and the haft of her weapon crashed into the ground where Anemos had been. Her face whipped toward him, still expressionless, as his bardic magic entangled her legs and arms.
	%Don't injure him either, Laminah,% Yusis amended, but once again the words lagged far behind her actions. Though the pull of Anemos' bardic magic slowed her movements, she was shockingly fast as she swung the haft of her halberd in a vertical arc. She battered the bard's lute out of his grasp, propelling it overhead in spite of the cord over his shoulder that loosely suspended it. The instrument clattered on the shrine's floor.
	Empty-handed yet unfazed, Anemos graciously bowed low before the warrior. "One day I shall be worthy of you, Laminah. Just not today." He quickly retrieved and inspected his lute; it did not appear to be damaged.
	Laminah turned to appraise the Overlord. "Did you truly believe I intended to harm him, Overlord Yusis Orzand?"
	%I didn't know if you were a monster. I still don't.%
	"Can you not see what I am?"
	%Not really. My senses don't work like they used to. I don't see well.%
	"Are you blind?"
	%Some. Not completely. It's hard to make out details, and I can't tell colors apart.% The Overlord briefly fingered the glasses on a cord around his neck. %I do have a way to 'see everything', but using it costs power.%
	"You should know what I am whether you can see it or not. You are the master of monsters."
	The Overlord folded his arms over his chest. His jet-black eyebrows flattened over his glowing yellow eyes.
	"Well?" she prompted.
	%You didn't hear my command, did you?%
	"I did not."
	%Do you feel my presence in your thoughts?%
	"I feel nothing."
	%I can detect your mind, but your thoughts are unclear to me.%
	"I am thinking something very clearly right now."
	The Overlord's eyes narrowed, and his vertical pupils became like thin lines.
	%I can't pick up on what it is.%
	"I am thinking that neither death nor undeath has quelled your endless doubts."
	%Laminah, I order you to say Cedric's name.%
	In a swift motion, the warrior extended her halberd and suspended its edge perilously close to the Overlord's throat. He relaxed his eyebrows and blinked once, but otherwise showed no reaction.
	%It's a command you would not willingly obey.%
	She withdrew her halberd and rested its haft on the floor. "Is that proof enough for you that I am not a monster, and not subject to your dominion?"
	%It is. I'm glad you're alive, Laminah. I'm very glad, but you deserve to know that I did not preserve your life out of 'mercy'. It was for my own reasons. You owe me nothing for what I've done, not even gratitude.%
	"Is that so."
	%That goes for you too, Anemos,% the Overlord added, with a pointed glance to the bard. %And for Cynthia, if it worked on her.%
	Laminah evenly inquired, "Am I addressing Yusis, or the Overlord Orzand?"
	%Both.%
	"Which one is replying to me?"
	 %What's left of 'Yusis', mostly. For now.%
	"I do not like the uncertainty in those words."
	%I don't like it either.%
	"How am I to know whether you are Yusis, or Orzand?"
	%Good question.% The Overlord's glowing yellow eyes drifted upward in thought. %Okay, how about this.%
	The Overlord's undead form abruptly shifted to the appearance of a living teenager with brown eyes and messy brown hair. The image was unmistakably that of Kreisia's most unlikely Savior; the only visual indications to the contrary were his unnaturally pristine clothing, and the miasma vapors drifting off of his body.
	Yusis stopped leaning against the shrine's wall, unfolded his arms, and made a small, open-handed shrug. "The Voice of Orzand doesn't like this illusion. Maintaining it requires a small amount of concentration from what's left of 'Yusis'. If the illusion drops without warning, then watch out."
	"Understood." Laminah put her halberd away, in a specialized carrier on her back.
	"My voice is harder to modify. It may slip. Certain things override the illusion when I say them, and sometimes I just lose focus."
	"I will keep that in mind." A contemplative look appeared upon the warrior's features. "A minor magic illusion cannot preclude your miasma vapors. Why are they causing no ill effects?"
	"You and Anemos have some natural resistance now. Cynthia should, too. That's my doing. I have limited control over my %Poisonous miasma;% I can't completely shut it off, so I made sure that just being near me wouldn't kill you."
	"Can you bestow this 'natural resistance' upon more people?"
	"No. It's not an anti-poison ward. It's a permanent change to your physical bodies, and the power that changed you came from the miasma fonts you sealed. Miasma hates life; dark magic usually refuses to protect the living from itself. You three Lesser Seals are an exception, because... reasons."
	"Tell me these 'reasons'."
	"Not now. I'll explain to all three of you at once."
	Yusis gestured to the nearby pedestal with a sapphire gem. "The next Savior will need Aldea's pommel stone."
	"I have it," Anemos responded, collecting the sapphire and stowing it away in his vest.
	Yusis returned his attention to Laminah. "Ten years have passed, and the cycle has turned. Time is running out. We need to set out for Cynthia's shrine. Anemos won't be using bardic magic to speed us up; I've got that covered. We'll travel by air, and you'll both be strictly responsible for your own safety. I have an idea that should prevent another crash landing; I'd rather not make either of you rely on float gossamers. If Anemos has any left."
	Anemos said, "I am prepared to use wind magic beads upon us, if necessary. The wind element can mitigate calamitous falls from a great height."
	Yusis' eyes darted to the bard. "Whatever works. Stay focused on looking out for yourselves, just in case. We're going to fly over a stretch of the ocean - uh, Laminah, can you swim in that armor?"
	"I am trained in swimming, and my armor's enchantments ensure that it does not hinder me in water," Laminah affirmed.
	Anemos added, "Should there be need, I will invoke bardic magic that influences the water element. My lute's wards will keep it functional even if it is submerged."
	"Good to know," Yusis acknowledged. "Both of you need to remember that _I can't do anything to help you_, not directly. If you have anything else quick to ask me, do it now. If it's not quick, save it."
	"You seem to prioritize rapidity as much as ever," Laminah calmly returned.
	Yusis' eyes darted back to the warrior. In a deadpan tone, he suggested, "Feel free to interrogate 'Anemos the Dazzling' as much as you want."
	Laminah raised a single white eyebrow.
	Yusis started to move toward the shrine's exit, only to stop, wince, and clutch at his head with one hand.
	"The Voice again?" Anemos quietly asked.
	"Yeah. Play something."
	Anemos nodded, and strummed his lute. Yusis slowly took his hand away from his head.
	Laminah asked, "What exactly is 'the Voice of Orzand'?"
	"So you can't hear it, just like Anemos can't?" Yusis warily asked, inspecting her with a coldly analytical gaze.
	"I hear nothing other than the three of us."
	"I figured as much."
	"And?"
	"I have a theory. For now, I'll say that Kreisia's miasma is connected to a mind obsessed with exterminating all life. Its rule is %Protect Kreisia from all life,% but I don't think it cares about Kreisia's rocks very much."
	Yusis' eyes darted back and forth. "Huh. Looks like naming the Voice's rules is another thing that overrides my illusion." He winced, and flattened his mouth in an irritated grimace.
	"What is the Voice telling you?" Laminah inquired.
	"It's complaining that you're defective."
	"The enemy of all life would naturally hold that view."
	"And it keeps saying, %SHE WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN WHILE YOUR BACK IS TURNED.%"
	"It lies to you," Laminah coolly evaluated.
	"I never said it was honest," Yusis muttered.
	"I know what will happen to all of Kreisia if the Greater Seal is destroyed, with no Savior to replace it."
	"Yeah. It's a spell that the Voice tries to cast. I call it %Miasma falls, everyone dies.% Only one thing stops the Voice from making me cast it right now; I _have_ to prepare for the next Savior. I can't prepare for anything if I cast a spell that absorbs the Greater Seal into its own miasma vortex, and then drowns the world."
	"So, the cycle protects Kreisia in precisely the manner that the Holy Brand told us."
	"Pretty much. If my Greater Seal is destroyed, then the only way to interrupt %Miasma falls, everyone dies% is for the next Savior to take my place."
	"Could I take your place?"
	Anemos said, "What?" and his song abruptly terminated, on a discordant note that resembled the shriek of a weasel.
	Yusis answered, "No, Laminah. You wouldn't last ten years. You wouldn't last ten minutes. No native of Kreisia can become the Greater Seal."
	Anemos admonished, "I am disheartened that this thought crossed your mind, Laminah. There must be a better way!"
	Yusis continued, "Kreisians don't have the 'corruption' that off-worlders do. The soul of a Kreisian isn't 'corrupt' enough to keep the Greater Seal stable. Not even the soul of an Altean. The Alteans are descended from the off-worlder Yumarac, but they've had children with Vargs and Lunarls for so many generations that their off-world 'corruption' is diluted to a shadow. Anemos wouldn't last more than a few days, if he tried to take my place."
	Anemos reflected, "That would be a very slightly better way, yet extremely far from ideal."
	Yusis concluded with, "Only a pure-blooded off-worlder can become the Greater Seal. That's the real reason why the Savior has to be summoned from beyond Kreisia, and I think it's why Aldea only allows off-world Saviors to wield it."
	Anemos pressed, "Are either of you listening to me at all?"
	Yusis and Laminah started walking toward the shrine's exit, taking brisk strides.
	Laminah spared a backward glance and dryly commented, "'Anemos the Dazzling'? Is that your legendary title, granted by the Overlord himself?"
	Anemos sighed, smiled, and gestured with one hand, summoning an effulgent shower of rainbow lights. Then he hurried to catch up, plucking the strings of his lute.